Cbe  Hfbratp 

of  ti>t 

Ontoetsttp  of  JSortft  Carolina 


Collection  of  j&otti)  Catoliniana 

jftom  t&e  Eibrarp  of 
Diocese,  df  >1,C. 


^«^»^#s#^«^«^s#s«s#^#s«s»«y##«^##^#s•^«^^#«^«^#s•^r#s#^»#^#^#s#^#^ 


g>t  ffeter  jb  Clfurrlj 


CHARLOTTE,  N.  C. 


Btainrtral  KbhttaztB 

From  Colonial  Days 
to  1893 


JOS.  BLOUNT  CHESHIRE 

Bishop  of  the  Diocese  of  North  Carolina 

1921 


OLD  ST.  PETER'S  CHURCH 

1862-1892 


St.  Peter's  Church 

Charlotte,  N.  C. 


J[  Short  History  of  the  Parish 

from  Its  Origin  to  the  Consecration 
of  the  Church  in  1862 


The  within  Address  was  delivered,  in  part,  in  the  old  St.  Peter's 
Church,  Charlotte,  Tuesday,  September  27,  1892,  being  the  last  occasion 
of  my  officiating  in  it,  just  before  it  was  pulled  down  to  give  place  to 
the  present  structure. — Jos.  Blount  Cheshire. 


OPH 

Charlotte,  N.  C. 

Observer  Printing  House,  Inc. 

1921 


St  Peters  Church 

Charlotte,  N.  C. 


C7 


'HE  history  of  the  Church  in  this  community  goes  back  but  a 
few  years.     There  are,  however,   some  facts   of  an   earlier 
date,  which  have  a  bearing  upon  the  subject,  and  which  may 
be  briefly  mentioned,  before  we  take  up  the  story  of  St. 
Peter's  Church,  Charlotte. 

In  our  Provincial  ecclessiastical  system,  Mecklenburg  County  con- 
stituted a  parish  by  the  name  of  St.  Martin's  (Act  of  1768  :  c.  x).  In 
1766,  the  Rev.  Andrew  Morton  was  sent  over  from  England  by  the 
Society  for  the  Propagation  of  the  Gospel  as  Minister  for  Mecklenburg 
County.  Upon  his  arrival  at  Wilmington,  he  learned  that  the  inhab- 
itants of  this  county  were  all  "Covenanters  and  Seceders,"  who,  he 
was  informed,  elected  Presbyterian  elders  upon  the  vestry  in  order  that 
no  provision  might  be  made  for  the  support  of  an  Episcopal  clergyman. 
Upon  this  Mr.  Morton  very  prudently  changed  his  destination  for  a 
more  favorable  field,  and,  with  the  consent  of  Governor  Tryon,  became 
the  minister  of  St.  George's  Parish,  Northampton  County. 

Mr.  Morton's  information  as  to  the  election  of  vestrymen  in  Meck- 
lenburg must  have  been  erroneous,  for  at  the  time  of  his  arrival  in  1766 
Mecklenburg  had  not  been  constituted  a  parish,  though  it  had  been 
made  a  county  in  1762. 

One  thing  may  be  mentioned  here  which  shows  that  there  was  not 
in  colonial  days  that  bitterness  of  feeling  against  the  religious  estab- 
lishment of  this  Province  which  our  later  writers  have  alleged.  Our 
laws  were  so  adjusted,  and  I  believe  intentionally,  that,  as  the  above 
incident  shows,  it  was  impossible  to  impose  the  services  or  ministry 
of  the  Episcopal  Church  upon  any  parish  where  the  people  did  not 
desire  them.  There  was  no  part  of  the  Province  therefore  in  which  the 
establishment  of  the  Church  was  ever  effected  except  by  the  action  of 
the  people  themselves,  through  their  elected  representatives,  just  as 
there  were  no  laws  for  the  establishment  of  the  Church  except  those 
passed  by  the  people  themselves  through  the  General  Assembly  of  the 
Province. 

When  the  first  serious  outbreak  of  the  Regulation  took  place,  in 
P*  1768,   all   the    Presbyterian    ministers    in    North    Carolina    united    in    a 

O  Pastoral  Letter  to  their  people,  and  in  an  Address  to  Governor  Tryon, 

^>  the  most  zealous  in  ecclesiastical  affairs  of  any  of  our  governors ;  and 

.  -j  both  in  the  Pastoral  Letter  and  in  the  Address  they  declare,  in  effect, 

0- 


4  St.  Peter's  Church,  Charlotte,  N.  C. 

that  under  his  administration  they  enjoyed  all  the  blessings  of  civil 
and  religious  freedom.  And  to  show  that  this  was  not  merely  the  lan- 
guage of  flattery,  it  is  only  necessary  to  turn  to  the  "Instructions  for 
the  Delegates  of  Mecklenburg  County,"  to  the  Provincial  Congress  of 
1775)  preserved  among  the  papers  of  Jno.  McKnitt  Alexander,  and  in 
his  handwriting.  It  has  always  seemed  doubtful  to  my  mind  whether 
these  "Instructions"  were  actually  given  to  the  delegates.  In  fact,  I 
incline  to  think  that  they  were  not.  But  they  may  at  any  rate  be  taken 
to  express  the  general  sentiment  of  the  Mecklenburg  Presbyterians, 
and  they  were  drawn  up  by  a  man  who  was  as  fair  a  representative  of 
the  best  elements  of  the  population  of  this  county  as  any  who  could 
be  named. 

The  thirteenth  paragraph  or  section  of  this  document  is  in  these 
words :  "You  are  instructed  to  assent  and  consent  to  the  establishment 
of  the  Christian  religion  as  contained  in  the  Scriptures  of  the  Old  and 
New  Testaments,  and  more  briefly  comprised  in  the  Thirty-Nine 
Articles  of  the  Church  of  England,  excluding  the  Thirty- Seventh  Article, 
together  with  all  the  Articles  excepted  and  not  to  be  imposed  on  Dis- 
senters by  the  Act  of  Toleration,  and  clearly  held  forth  in  the  Confes- 
sion of  Faith  compiled  by  the  assembly  of  divines  at  Westminster,  to 
be  the  religion  of  the  State,"  etc.  If  at  this  time  of  excitement  and 
of  resentment  against  England  there  had  been  any  strong  and  general 
feeling  that  our  Colonial  Church  establishment  had  been  an  injustice 
and  an  oppression  of  the  people,  a  representative  Mecklenburg  Pres- 
byterian, even  supposing  these  instructions  to  have  expressed  only  Mr. 
Alexander's  own  opinions,  would  not  thus  have  laid  down  as  the  basis 
of  a  religious  establishment  for  the  independent  State  of  North  Caro- 
lina, that  very  statement  of  doctrine  which  he  looked  upon  as  the 
special  characteristic  of  the  English  and  Colonial  Church,  putting  it 
even  before  his  own  Westminster  Confession. 

Another  curious  fact  illustrates  this  absence  of  any  popular  feeling 
of  resentment  against  the  Episcopal  Church,  in  the  period  immediately 
following  the  Revolution,  on  account  of  its  previous  legal  establish- 
ment in  the  Province.  In  the  Hillsboro  Convention  of  1788,  Mr.  Henry 
Abbott,  an  eminent  Kehukee  Baptist  preacher,  who  was  a  member  of 
that  Convention  from  Camden  County,  referring  to  the  suggestion  that 
it  would  be  possible  for  the  proposed  Federal  Government,  through  its 
treaty-making  power,  to  impose  an  established  religion  upon  the  peo- 
ple of  the  United  States,  one  of  the  many  absurd  objections  made  in 
that  Convention  against  the  Federal  Constitution,  said  that  if  there 
were  to  be  an  established  Church  in  this  State  he  would  prefer  the 
Episcopal  Church,  though  he  was  opposed  to  any  Church  establishment 
by  law. 


St.  Peter's  Church,  Charlotte,  N.  C.  5 

To  come  somewhat  nearer  our  subject,  we  find  a  curious  and  inter- 
esting local  memory  which  connects  the  name  of  the  late  Bishop  Green, 
of  Mississippi,  with  Charlotte.  During  the  first  years  of  his  ministry, 
while  rector  of  St.  Matthew's  Church,  Hillsboro,  he  was  called  to  the 
pastorate  of  the  congregation  just  formed  in  this  place.  Perhaps  it 
would  be  more  correct  to  say  that  he  was  called  to  be  the  preacher  for 
the  congregation  worshiping  in  what  afterwards  became  "The  First 
Presbyterian  Church  of  Charlotte."  As  in  so  many  other  towns  in 
North  Carolina  during  the  early  past  of  this  country,  so  in  Charlotte, 
the  people  had  erected  a  Church  (upon  the  site  of  the  present  First 
Presbyterian  Church),  for  the  common  worship  of  the  community,  with 
no  distinct  ecclesiastical  principles,  and  unconnected  with  any  denomi- 
national organization.  Mr.  Green,  then  a  popular  young  man  and  an 
attractive  preacher,  was  among  the  first,  if  not  the  first  minister,  invited 
to  take  charge  of  this  Church,  probably  by  the  influence  of  some  person 
in  the  congregation  who  had  a  preference  for  the  form  of  service  of 
the  Episcopal  Church.  He  declined,  and  I  believe  a  Universalist  preacher 
was  then  called,  and  perhaps  officiated  for  a  short  while,  before  the 
congregation  became  by  a  natural  and  perhaps  necessary  transition, 
or  evolution,  an  organic  part  of  the  Concord  Presbytery.* 

The  first  recorded  service  by  a  minister  of  our  Church  in  Charlotte 
was  held  in  that  old  Church,  during  the  time  it  was  the  place  of  com- 
mon worship  for  the  community.  Bishop  Ravenscroft,  in  his  Conven- 
tion Address,  1825,  mentions  having  spent  the  first  Sunday  in  Novem- 
ber, 1824,  in  Charlotte,  and  adds  that  he  "preached  in  the  Church  there." 
In  a  private  letter  to  the  Rev.  Robert  Johnston  Miller,  written  from 
Charlotte  the  next  day,  Monday,  November  8,  he  refers  to  the  same 
service  more  fully.  "I  preached  here  yesterday  on  the  invitation  of 
Dr.  McCrie,  but  with  rather  a  costive  consent,  as  I  thought,  from  Mr. 
Caldwell,  who  after  I  had  closed  came  up  into  the  pulpit,  and  requested 
the  patience  of  the  people  for  a  short  discourse.  This  I  sat  and  heard, 
but  refrained  from  all  mixture  with  them.  They  are  very  jealous,  but 
they  appear  to  have  it  all  their  own  way." 

Bishop  Ravenscroft  does  not  seem  to  have  visited  Charlotte  again. 
Whether  there  were  any  members  of  the  Church  here  at  that  time,  I 
do  not  know. 

The  first  attempt  to  establish  the  services  of  the  Church  here,  and 
to  gather  a  congregation,  was  made  by  the  Rev.  John  Morgan,  who 
became  rector  of  St.  Luke's  Church,  Salisbury,  and  of  Christ  Church, 
Rowan,  about  the  end  of  the  year  1832,  and  extended  his  services  occa- 
sionally as  far  as  Charlotte.  The  first  Episcopal  visitation  was  made 
Tuesday,  June  25,   1834,  when   Bishop   Ives   accompanied   Mr.   Morgan 


*Mr.  John  Wilkes  is  under  the  impression  that  Bishop  Green  told  him  that 
he  preached  once  in  Charlotte  about  this  time.  There  are  circumstances  which 
make  me  doubt  this. 


6  St.  Peter's  Church,  Charlotte,  N.  C. 

from  Salisbury,  held  his  first  service  here,  and  confirmed  four  persons. 
In  his  report  at  the  Convention  of  1834,  Mr.  Morgan  mentioned  three 
"new  communicants"  at  Charlotte.  As  in  1835  he  reports  the  number 
of  communicants  as  reduced  to  two,  it  is  probable  that  the  three  new 
ones  in  1834  constituted  the  whole  number.  Unfortunately  we  have  no 
contemporary  records,  except  the  brief  mention  of  the  Bishop's  address 
and  these  references  in  Mr.  Morgan's  report.  Some  record  of  baptisms 
and  of  communicants  may  have  been  made  by  Mr.  Morgan,  for  our 
oldest  parish  register  contains  entries  of  both,  written  in  a  later  hand, 
and  possibly  copies  from  an  earlier  record  made  by  Mr.  Morgan. 

The  first  names  associated  with  the  Church  in  Charlotte,  as  I  find 
them  in  the  register,  are  the  notable  ones  of  Wilson,  Alexander,  Polk, 
and  Caldwell.  To  these  were  soon  added  Lowrie,  Abernethy,  Gibbon, 
and  Davidson.  The  Wilsons  were  from  a  more  eastern  section  of  the 
State,  and  were  of  English  descent,  and  brought  up  in  the  Church. 
From  their  connection  with  the  Hendersons,  Wilsons,  and  Martins,  the 
Alexanders  were  also  associated  with  the  Churchmen  further  east. 
The  Abernethys  represent  a  strain  of  stubborn  Scotch  Episcopalians, 
who  for  several  generations  adhered  to  the  Church,  after  being  deprived 
of  its  ministry  and  ordinances.  The  Gibbons  were  Churchmen  from 
Philadelphia,  who  had  lately  removed  to  Charlotte.  It  is  unnecessary  to 
inquire  how  the  others  had  come  into  the  Church — Davidsons,  Polks, 
Caldwells,  etc.  They  may  be  taken  to  represent  the  fact  that  among 
the  Anglo-Saxon  inhabitants  of  Ireland  (and  the  Scotch-Irish  were 
pure  Anglo-Saxon)  Churchmen  and  Presbyterians  stood  together  for 
many  years  in  heroic  defense  of  their  common  race  and  liberties,  and 
were  more  or  less  mingled  together  in  their  natural  and  ecclesiastical 
descendants. 

Mr.  Morgan  continued  to  officiate  in  Charlotte  a  few  Sundays  in 
each  year,  until  1835,  when  he  was  succeeded  by  the  Rev.  Moses  Ashley 
Curtis,  sent  by  Bishop  Ives  to  act  as  missionary  in  Mecklenburg  and 
Lincoln  Counties.  Bishop  Atkinson,  in  his  address  to  the  Convention 
of  1863,  referring  to  the  presence  of  Dr.  Curtis  at  the  consecration  of 
this  Church,  September  23,  1862,  says  that  to  his  "early  labors  our 
Church  in  Charlotte  owed  its  origin."  Our  journals  seem  to  show 
that  in  this  Bishop  Atkinson  was  mistaken.  Mr.  Morgan  had  labored 
here  from  1832  to  1835,  had  baptized  children  and  adults,  presented 
candidates  for  Confirmation,  and  gotten  together  a  handful  of  people, 
few  in  number  but  of  notable  character  and  of  commanding  influence, 
who  were  for  many  years  the  strength  and  dependence  of  the  parish 
afterwards  formed.  Mr.  Curtis  remained  in  this  field  less  than  two 
years,  and  though  he  reports  that  a  Church  had  been  organized  in 
Charlotte,  we  do  not  find  any  trace  of  that  organization  after  his 
departure. 


St.  Peter's  Church,  Charlotte,  N.  C.  7 

The  parish  when  admitted  into  the  Convention  in  1845  was  a  new 
organization,  dating  only  from  the  preceding  Christmas.  But  Dr.  Curtis 
certainly  consolidated  the  work  begun  by  Mr.  Morgan,  and  gave  it 
some  forward  movement.  His  ability  and  personal  piety,  his  sweetness 
of  character,  and  his  attainments  in  music  and  in  natural  science,  made 
an  impression  upon  the  community,  and  left  a  memory  behind  him. 
When  I  came  into  this  parish,  in  i88r,  the  oldest  of  my  parishioners, 
Miss  Sarah  Davidson,  loved  to  speak  to  me  of  Dr.  Curtis,  and  still 
recalled  the  pleasure  afforded  her  and  other  members  of  the  little  con- 
gregation by  his  periodical  visits.  She  was  herself  a  musician,  and 
often  has  she  spoken  to  me  of  his  taste  and  skill  as  a  performer  upon 
the  flute,  and  of  the  delightful  hours  they  spent  making  sweet  concord 
with  the  blended  strains  of  piano  and  flute.  And  it  may  not  be  amiss 
to  call  your  attention  in  passing  to  the  place  which  Dr.  Curtis  occupies 
in  the  history  of  our  Diocese  and  of  our  State.  Not  only  did  his  life 
illustrate  the  best  qualities  of  the  parish  priest  and  the  pastor  of  Christ's 
flock,  but  his  influence  extended  beyond  the  bounds  of  his  own  parish, 
in  the  development  of  a  higher  and  more  correct  taste  in  Church  music, 
and  in  the  diffusion  of  the  knowledge  and  enjoyment  of  God's  works 
in  the  beauties  and  wonders  of  the  vegetable  world  around  us.  His 
original  musical  compositions  are  of  a  high  order,  and  are  still  heard  in 
our  churches  occasionally  upon  some  notable  festival,  while  his  choir 
in  St.  Matthew's  Church,  Hillsboro,  sang  the  best  music  from  the 
oratorios  and  masses  of  the  old  masters  of  the  heavenly  art  long  before 
the  days  of  our  music  festivals  and  philharmonics.  It  was  his  hand 
which  unrolled  and  recorded  the  botanical  riches  of  our  State,  not  only 
for  the  scientist,  but  for  the  farmer  and  the  woodman,  for  you  and  me. 
His  name  is  everywhere  known,  where  the  science  of  Botany  is  studied, 
as*  one  of  America's  most  diligent  and  accurate  botanists;  and  in  some 
departments,  as  of  the  Fungi,  he  is  a  high  original  authority.  The  State 
of  North  Carolina  has  shown,  though  very  inadequately,  its  appreciation 
of  his  labors,  by  publishing  at  the  public  expense  both  his  general 
catalogue  of  our  Flora,  and  also  his  popular  and  familiar  "Woody 
Plants,"  the  latter,  I  believe,  more  than  once.  It  is  gratifying  to  us  to 
be  able  to  enroll  his  name  in  the  honored  list  of  our  ministers  in 
Charlotte. 

I  find  no  account  of  any  other  minister  officiating  for  this  feeble 
flock  until  the  Rev.  Edward  M.  Forbes  took  up  his  residence  in  Lincoln- 
ton,  soon  after  the  Convention  of  1841,  and  extended  his  labors  into 
Mecklenburg  County  and  Charlotte.  The  first  record  of  a  baptism  by 
him  in  this  place  is  not  until  October,  1842,  though  he  must  have  been 
coming  here  for  a  year  before  that  time.  He  was  a  very  different  man 
from  Dr.  Curtis,  but  was  well  able  to  do  good  work  for  the  Church. 
Untiring  zeal  and  enthusiasm,  coupled  with  a  singular  power  of  arous- 


8  St.  Peter's  Church,  Charlotte,  N.  C. 

ing  the  interest  of  the  young  and  the  ignorant,  and  an  equal  facility  in 
imparting  instructions,  made  him  a  most  active  and  efficient  missionary. 
He  was  able  to  give  but  little  of  his  time  to  this  part  of  his  field,  and 
therefore  he  could  make  but  little  impression  here ;  but  in  Lincoln 
County,  and  even  beyond,  in  Burke,  he  laid  the  foundation  of  great 
success,  if  he  could  have  followed  it  up ;  and  it  seems  to  have  been  a 
misfortune  to  the  Church,  and  a  great  mistake  on  his  part,  when  he 
was  induced  to  abandon  this  most  promising  field,  and  remove  to  the 
State  of  Alabama.  But  though  his  work  did  not  have  any  very  great 
visible  results  in  Mecklenburg,  yet  he  left  a  vivid  impression  upon  the 
memory  of  those  brought  in  contact  with  him.  Preaching  out  at  Long 
Creek  several  years  ago,  I  was  approached  by  a  county  Justice  of  the 
Peace,  who  lived  in  the  neighborhood,  who  told  me  that  he  had  long 
been  favorably  inclined  toward  the  Episcopal  Church,  by  reason  of 
having  been  acquainted  from  his  boyhood  with  the  Prayer  Book,  a  copy 
of  which  had  been  given  to  his  father  nearly  fifty  years  before,  by 
"a  little  man  who  used  to  preach  near  the  old  Capps  Mine."  Upon 
inquiry  this  little  man  proved  to  have  been  the  Rev.  Mr.  Forbes,  who 
was  quite  small  in  stature,  though  ever  a  valiant  champion  of  the  truth. 
Mr.  Forbes  and  Bishop  Ives  both  mention  this  appointment  at  Capps 
Hill,  and  Bishop  Ives  once  visited  the  place  with  Mr.  Forbes,  and 
preached  there  (1843  :  25). 

August  4,  1841,  Bishop  Ives  visited  Charlotte,  and  confirmed  one 
person.  On  this  visitation  he  mentions  that  he  was  accompanied  by 
his  "young  friend  and  presbyter,  the  Rev.  Mr.  Cheshire."  It  has  grati- 
fied me  personally  to  meet  now  and  then,  in  this  or  an  adjoining  county, 
those  who  had  a  pleasant  recollection  of  the  Bishop's  companion ;  and 
one  lady  whose  first  Prayer  Book  was  given  to  her,  before  she  was  a 
member  of  the  Church,  by  this  young  presbyter.  I  need  hardly  add 
that  this  Mr.  Cheshire  was  not  myself,  though  upon  my  first  visit  to 
Charlotte,  before  I  was  myself  in  Holy  Orders,  I  met  an  old  lady,  who 
insisted  that  she  remembered  me  distinctly  as  Bishop  Ives'  companion 
uponj  his  visitation  through  this  section  in  the  summer  of  1841  ! 

When  Mr.  Forbes  removed  to  Alabama,  in  the  beginning  of  1844, 
his  work  in  Lincoln  and  the  adjoining  counties  was  taken  up  by  the 
Rev.  Aaron  F.  Olmstead,  who  was  ordained  to  the  priesthood  by  Bishop 
Ives  in  St.  Luke's  Church,  Lincolnton,  on  the  Seventh  Sunday  after 
Trinity — July  20,  1844.  Mr.  Olmstead  had  been  a  year  in  the  diaconate, 
and  had  during  that  time  been  assisting  Mr.  Forbes  in  the  work  which 
was  now  put  under  his  charge.  He  was  a  most  faithful  and  devoted 
priest,  but  after  two  years  of  labor  he  was  compelled  to  remove  from 
this  part  of  the  country  for  want  of  support.  His  services  in  Charlotte 
were,  as  had  always  been  the  case,  very  infrequent,  and  it  was  impos- 
sible that  in  so  extended  a  field  of  work  he  could  do  much  at  any  one 


St.  Peter's  Church,  Charlotte,  N.  C.  9 

point.  But  during  his  term  of  service  here  the  register  shows  that  he 
baptized  a  number  of  persons ;  and  the  parish  of  St.  Peter's  Church, 
Charlotte,  was  organized  and  admitted  into  union  with  the  Diocesan 
Convention.  (See  the  Journal  of  1845  :  9.)  A  subscription  was  at  once 
started  for  the  purpose  of  raising  funds  to  build  a  Church,  and  with 
such  success  that  a  small  brick  structure  was  erected  during  the  years 
1845-46,  which  was  consecrated  by  Bishop  Ives  the  Third  Sunday  after 
Trinity — June  28,  1846.  In  his  address  to  the  Convention  of  1847,  after 
mentioning  this  consecration,  the  Bishop  adds  :  "The  Church  here  is  a 
neat  and  sufficiently  commodious  brick  building,  for  which  the  con- 
gregation are  mainly  indebted  to  the  indefatigable  exertion  of  Mr. 
Jeremiah  Murphy,  the  classical  teacher  of  the  place,  and  warden  of  the 
Church."* 

The  parish  organization  dated  from  December  20,  1844.  On  that 
day  a  meeting  was  held  at  the  house  of  William  Julius  Alexander,  Esq., 
by  the  Churchmen  of  Charlotte,  and  a  congregation  was  formed  under 
the  canons  of  the  Diocese.  Mr.  Jeremiah  W.  Murphy  seems  to  have 
been  the  leader  in  this  movement,  and  he,  with  Wm.  J.  Alexander, 
Wm.  R.  Myers,  and  Miles  B.  Abernethy,  were  elected  the  first  vestry. 
Mr.  Murphy  was  warden,  and  was  chairman  of  the  meeting,  and  the 
vestry  completed  its  organization  immediately  after  its  election  by 
appointing  Wm.  R.  Myers,  secretary.  The  next  year  the  first  delegates 
were  appointed  to  the  Convention  of  the  Diocese — Wm.  J.  Alexander, 
Jeremiah  W.  Murphy,  Wm.  F.  Davidson,  and  Dr.  E.  Dallas  William- 
son. Mr.  Murphy  seems  to  have  made  the  entries  in  the  Parish  Regis- 
ter, and  to  have  kept  the  record  of  the  meetings,  both  of  the  congrega- 
tion and  of  the  vestry,  as  long  as  he  remained  in  the  parish.  All  the 
entries  in  the  Register  are  in  his  handwriting  down  to  May,  1847.  The 
earlier  entries  of  Baptisms  and  of  Communicants,  in  the  time  of  Mr. 
Morgan  and  Mr.  Olmstead,  may  have  been  copied  by  him  from  memo- 
randa made  by  those  clergymen  at  the  time ;  but  it  is  quite  possible  that 
he  made  the  entries  from  verbal  information  obtained  from  persons  in 
the  congregation.    This,  however,  is  merely  conjectural. 

It  appears  from  the  entries  in  the  Vestry  Book  that  the  contract 
for  the  Church,  or  Chapel,  as  it  is  called,  was  made  by  the  Hon.  Green 
W.  Caldwell,  a  member  of  the  building  committee,  acting  for  the  vestry, 


*Mr.  Murphy  had  three  sons  who  took  Holy  Orders — Joseph  W.,  William, 
and  Reginald  Heber.  I  think  that  Mr.  Jeremiah  Murphy  lived  in  Llncolnton 
before  coming  to  Charlotte,  and  that  he  was  actively  concerned  in  building  the 
church  there.  After  he  left  Charlotte  he  lived  for  awhile  in  Lexington,  and  there 
also  he  was  instrumental  in  building  a  church.  My  father  sent  him  a  contribution 
towards  the  church  in  Lexington,  and  a  letter  highly  commending  his  zeal  and 
activity  in  building  up  the  Church  wherever  he  went.  Mr.  Murphy  was  so  much 
pleased  with  this  letter  that,  as  long  as  it  lasted,  he  made  his  scholars  copy  it  for 
their  writing  exercise.  He  said  he  did  so  because  of  the  excellence  of  the  chirog- 
raphy ! 


io  St.  Peter's  Church,  Charlotte,  N.  C. 

and  that  Mr.  Murphy,  who  was  most  active  in  raising  the  money,  was 
directed  to  pay  it  over  to  the  contractor  upon  Mr.  Caldwell's  order. 

This  church,  the  first  St.  Peter's,  stood  upon  the  lot  on  the  north 
side  of  West  Trade  Street,  opposite  the  Mint,  occupied  during  my  time 
in  Charlotte  by  the  residence  of  Mr.  David  W.  Oates.  It  was  a  small 
structure,  about  twenty  by  forty  feet  in  size,  and  had  a  cross  on  the 
gable  end  to  mark  its  sacred  character,  though  it  made  little  other 
pretence  to  anything  specially  ecclesiastical  in  its  construction.  It  was 
sufficient  for  the  accommodation  of  the  little  congregation  when  it  was 
built,  but  its  diminutive  size,  and  the  enthusiastic  devotion  with  which 
it  was  regarded  by  its  builders,  and  especially  by  the  good  old  Irishman, 
Mr.  Murphy,  gave  occasion  to  some  humorous  sallies  at  its  expense. 
(After  the  property  was  sold,  and  its  use  entirely  changed,  the  gable 
end  and  wall  could  still  be  distinguished  upon  one  side  of  the  residence 
erected  on  the  lot.  And  I  am  under  the  impression  that  some  part  of 
the  foundation  and  walls  are  still  standing,  having  been  incorporated 
with  the  larger  and  handsomer  dwelling-house  afterwards  erected  upon 
the  site  by  Mr.  Oates.  This  church  is  said,  by  a  very  generous  estimate, 
to  have  seated  one  hundred  fifty  persons,  and  it  answered  the  pur- 
poses of  the  congregation  for  about  ten  years. 

Up  to  this  time,  and  for  a  good  many  years  afterwards,  it  was 
with  great  difficulty  that  even  the  infrequent  ministrations  of  the  clergy 
of  the  Church  had  been  maintained  in  Charlotte,  and  the  faithful  mem- 
bers of  the  Church  in  the  parish  were  obliged  to  keep  the  light  shining 
upon  the  altar  by  the  help  of  lay  readers,  and  the  diligent  instruction 
of  their  households.  In  his  address  to  the  Convention,  1840,  Bishop 
Ives  speaks  of  having- examined  the  children  of  one  family  (probably 
that  of  Wm.  J.  Alexander,  Esq.)  in  the  Church  Catechism  during  his 
visit  to  Charlotte,  and  adds  :  "In  this  examination  a  striking  illustra- 
tion was  furnished  of  how  much  may  be  done  by  the  Christian  mothers 
for  the  salvation  of  their  children,  even  when  deprived  of  the  stated 
ministrations  of  the  Gospel."  This  spirit  of  faithfulness  to  the  Church, 
under  the  many  discouragements  of  their  situation,  characterized  all 
this  period  of  our  parish  history.  For  several  years  there  was  no 
minister  at  all  in  charge  of  the  struggling  parish.  The  services  were 
kept  up  by  lay-readers — first  Mr.  Murphy,  then  by  Mr.  John  H.  Bryan, 
Jr.,  son  of  the  eminent  lawyer  and  Churchman  of  the  same  name,  so 
long  connected  with  Christ  Church,  Raleigh.  Mr.  Bryan  represented 
the  parish  in  the  Convention  of  1847,  the  first  convention  attended  by 
a  delegate  from  Charlotte.  We  now  find  new  names  appearing  upon 
the  parish  records — Lucas,  Williams,  and  Jones — whose  representatives 
are  still  with  us.  Mr.  Wm.  A.  Lucas  soon  followed  Mr.  Bryan  in  the 
office  of  lay-reader,  and  kept  the  Church  open  and  the  congregation 
together  when  no  minister  could  be  had. 


St.  Peter's  Church,  Charlotte,  N.  C.  ii 

One  thing  should  not  be  forgotten  in  speaking  of  these  early  days 
of  the  parish,  namely  :<  the  attention  paid  to  the  religious  instruction  of 
the  slaves,  indicated  by  the  frequency  with  which  their  names  appear 
among  those  receiving  the  ministrations  of  the  Church.  A  large  pro- 
portion of  the  baptisms  recorded  in  the  parish  register  is  of  slaves ;  and 
as  a  rule  their  master's  and  mistresses  seem  to  have  acted  as  their  God- 
fathers and  God-mothers.  Doubtless  they  enjoyed  also  their  full  share 
of  the  care  and  interest  of  the  ministers,  and  had  their  place  and  part 
in  his  instructions,  as  well  as  in  the  worship  of  the  household  and  of 
the  sanctuary. 

In  1847,  the  Rev.  John  Haywood  Parker,  rector  of  St.  Luke's 
Chur'ch,  Salisbury,  visited  Charlotte  at  the  request  of  the  Bishop ;  and 
for  several  years  continued  his  ministrations  at  infrequent  intervals, 
having  upon  his  hands  part  of  the  time,  besides  the  parish  in  Salisbury, 
the  Churches  in  Rowan  County  and  at  Lexington.  The  reputation 
which  he  left  in  his  community  was  not  different  from  that  won  for 
him  elsewhere,  by  his  purity  of  character,  and  by  his  generous,  gentle, 
and  loving  spirit.  During  this  same  period  the  Rev.  Oliver  S.  Prescott 
and  the  Rev.  R.  E.  Parham  are  mentioned  as  having  favored  the  parish 
with  occasional  services. 

The  Rev.  Thos.  S.  W.  Mott  assumed  charge  of  St.  Luke's,  Lin- 
colnton,  and  St.  Peter's,  Charlotte,  in  March,  1852;  and  though  the 
arrangement  was  supposed  at  the  time  to  be  only  temporary,  he  con- 
tinued several  years  to  officiate,  having  his  residence  in  Lincoln  County, 
and  coming  to  Charlotte,  as  I  am  informed,  only  once  a  month.  Up 
to  this  time  the  growth  of  the  Church  in  Charlotte  had  been  exceed- 
ingly slow.  There  had  never  been  a  resident  minister  here,  and  it 
was  seldom,  if  ever,  that  the  congregations  enjoyed  the  services  of 
a  minister  for  more  than  four  or  five  times  during  the  year.  "The 
fifth  Sunday"  seems  to  have  been  their  usual  portion.  It  seemed  to 
be  thought  that  Lincoln  County,  with  its  larger  number  of  inhabitants 
of  English  descent,  and  with  the  remnants  of  Parson  Miller's  old  con- 
gregations— White  Haven,  St.  Peter's,  and  Smyrna — scattered  about 
through  the  country,  offered  a  more  promising  field  than  the  Scotch-. 
Irish  settlements  of  Mecklenburg.  So  there  was  usually  a  minister 
resident  in  Lincoln  County,  and  the  Church  there  seemed  to  be  more 
prosperous  than  upon  this  side  of  the  river.  The  number  of  com- 
municants in  Charlotte,  which  had  been  four  in  1834,  three  in  1835, 
seven  in  1842,  ten  in  1844,  fourteen  in  1845,  and  sixteen  in  1851,  was 
only  fifteen  when  Mr.  Hewitt  made  his  first  report  in  1855,  Mr.  Mott 
having  left  this  Diocese  and  gone  to  Mississippi  in  1854. 

The  first  resident  minister  in  Charlotte  was  the  Rev.  Horatio  H. 
Hewitt,  who  removed  from  Wadesboro  to  this  field  in  1854,  taking 
charge  of   St.   Peter's   Church,   Charlotte,   and   St.    Luke's,   Lincolnton. 


12  St.  Peter's  Church,  Charlotte,  N.  C. 

When  he  came  to  Charlotte,  a  new  era  for  the  town  was  just  begin- 
ning. The  South  Carolina  Railroad  from  Columbia  to  Charlotte  had 
been  built  but  a  few  years,  and  the  North  Carolina  Railroad  from  Golds- 
boro  to  Charlotte  was  nearly  completed.  Up  to  this  time  Salisbury  had 
been  the  chief  town  in  the  State  west  of  Raleigh.  It  was  becoming 
quite  apparent,  in  1855,  that  Charlotte  must  take  that  position,  and  Mr. 
Hewitt  saw  the  importance  of  the  crisis  for  the  Church.  He  felt  that 
the  parish  could  not  grow  without  increased  accommodation  for  the 
congregation.  In  his  first  parochial  report  (1855  :  33),  he  says:  "This 
large  and  growing  town  demands  the  especial  sympathies  of  every 
liberal  hearted  Churchman  in  the  Diocese.  Its  population,  according 
to  the  best  and  latest  estimate,  has  increased  to  nearly  three  thousand 
souls ;  and  yet  we  have  not  church  accommodation  in  it  for  more  than 
one  hundred  fifty  souls.  From  the  interest  which  is  manifested  in 
our  services,  we  have  every  reason  to  believe  that  the  growth  of  the 
Church  is  greatly  retarded  for  want  of  a  larger  building.  There  are 
so  few  members,  however,  that  it  would  be  impossible  for  them  to 
undertake,  alone,  the  responsibility  of  erecting  one  equal  to  the 
importance  of  [or  ?]  the  wants  of  the  parish.  Those  who  desire  the  pros- 
perity of  our  Zion,  and  have  it  in  their  power  to  aid  us,  will  confer  a 
lasting  benefit  by  forwarding  their  contributions  either  to  me  or  to 
W.  F.  Davidson,  Esq.,  Charlotte." 

The  project,  thus  suggested  by  Mr.  Hewitt  in  1855,  was  taken  up 
with  spirit  by  members  of  the  congregation  at  the  time  of  Bishop  Atkin- 
son's visitation,  Easter,  1856.  Mr.  Hewitt,  during  the  year  1856,  visited 
several  parishes  both  in  this  Diocese  and  in  South  Carolina,  soliciting 
funds  for  the  proposed  Church.  No  record  has  been  preserved  of  the 
sums  raised  here  or  elsewhere,  but  the  subject  is  referred  to  more  than 
once  in  the  parochial  reports  of  the  rectors  of  the  parish,  and  some 
facts  of  interest  have  in  this  way  been  preserved.  In  his  report  in 
1857,  Mr.  Hewitt  says  that  $1500.00  had  been  raised  by  the  congrega- 
tion, and  that  he  had  received  §377.70  from  the  parishes  at  Salisbury, 
Fayetteville,  and  Wadesboro,  in  this  Diocese,  and  Cheraw  and  York- 
ville,  in  South  Carolina.  The  old  church  lot,  extending  through  from 
Trade  to  Fifth  Streets,  had  risen  very  much  in  value  with  the  increas- 
ing population  and  prosperity  of  the  town,  and  it,  with  the  chapel  upon 
it,  was  disposed  of  to  the  contractor  for  the  new  building  at  the  price 
of  $1200.00.  The  new  Church  was,  therefore,  begun  with  something 
over  $3000.00  as  a  building  fund. 

There  was  some  difference  of  opinion  among  the  members  of  the 
vestry  in  regard  to  the  location  of  the  new  church.  There  was  a  natural 
regret  felt  by  many  at  leaving  the  old  place,  and  disposing  of  the  con- 
secrated building,  and  of  so  convenient  and  ample  a  property,  which 
would  have  afforded  abundant  room  for  all  future  parish  needs. 


St.  Peter's  Church,  Charlotte,  N.  C.  13 

On  the  other  hand,  it  was  urged,  that  the  former  location  was 
inconvenient  for  the  great  majority  of  the  congregation,  and  moreover 
that  it  would  be  impossible  to  build  the  new  Church,  without  making 
use  of  the  money  which  could  be  realized  from  the  sale  of  the  lot  on 
Trade  Street,  which  was  much  larger  than  the  parish  could  have  need 
of  for  many  years  to  come.  A  smaller  lot,  it  was  thought,  would  serve 
present  purposes  ;  and  it  could  be  left  for  the  future  larger  and  stronger 
congregation  to  provide  for  the  necessities  of  future  work.  The  out- 
come was  that  the  old  lot  was  sold,  as  has  been  stated,  and  a  new  one 
purchased  on  the  corner  of  Tryon  and  Seventh  Streets.  The  new  site 
was  only  ninety-nine  feet  square,  being  half  of  a  regular  city  lot.  This 
may  have  been  the  wisest  thing  at  the  time,  but  we  have  since  found 
the  inconvenience  of  so  small  a  lot. 

May  20,  1857,  there  was  a  grand  celebration  in  Charlotte  of  the 
anniversary  of  the  "Mecklenburg  Declaration,"  and  the  special  feature 
of  the  occasion  was  an  address  of  great  power  and  eloquence  by  Dr. 
Hawks.  The  next  day,  May  21,  Bishop  Atkinson  laid  the  cornerstone 
of  the  new  Church,  "and  a  beautiful  and  appropriate  address  [was] 
delivered  by  Dr.  Hawks."  There  were  present  of  the  clergy,  besides 
Bishop  Atkinson,  Mr.  Hewitt,  Dr.  Hawks,  and  the  Rev.  Messrs.  Mc- 
Cullough  and  Gibson,  of  South  Carolina. 

To  sum  up  briefly  what  I  have  been  able  to  learn  in  regard  to  the 
building  of  this  church,  I  may  say  that,  in  1858,  Mr.  Hewitt  gave  up 
the  work,  and  removed  to  Maryland,  and  Mr.  Mott,  having  returned 
from  Mississippi,  resumed  charge  of  the  parish.  In  his  parochial  report 
of  1858,  he  says  that  the  Church  was  nearly  completed,  and  would 
probably  be  ready  for  use  the  second  or  third  Sunday  of  June  in  that 
year ;  that  it  had  so  far  cost  $6,000.00,  and  that  thee  was  a  debt  upon 
it  of  $1500.00.  It  appears,  therefore,  that  in  addition  to  the  $3000.00 
with  which  the  work  was  begun,  the  congregation  must  have  raised 
among  themselves,  or  by  contributions  from  outside,  the  sum  of  $1500.00 
between  the  Conventions  of  1857  and  1858.  Bishop  Atkinson  made  his 
first  visitation,  and  held  his  first  service  in  the  new  church,  October 
10,  1858.  In  1859,  Mr.  Mott  reports  that  by  the  exertions  of  the  mem- 
bers of  the  Church,  and  through  the  generous  aid  of  the  citizens  of 
Charlotte  not  of  our  communion,  "and  especially  in  consequence  of  the 
generous  response  of  our  Christian  brethren  in  South  Carolina  and 
Georgia  to  his  personal  appeals,  the  debt  had  been  so  reduced  that  he 
is  not  without  hopes  of  cleaning  it  entirely  off  during  the  Conventional 
year  next  ensuing."  In  i860,  Mr.  John  Wilkes,  Senior  Warden  (Mr. 
Mott  having  resigned  the  rectorship  and  left  the  parish)  reports  that 
Mr.  Mott  had  raised  in  Maryland  and  New  York  the  sum  of  $563.50 
towards  paying  off  the  debt,  by  which  it  had  been  so  much  reduced 
that  they  hoped  soon  to  extinguish  it  altogether,  and  to  complete  the 
outside  walls.  Finally,  in  his  Address  to  the  Convention  of  1863,  Bishop 
Atkinson  has  the  following  passage : 


14  St.  Peter's  Church,  Charlotte,  N.  C. 

"On  the  twenty-third  of  September  [1862],  I  consecrated  St.  Peter's 
Church,  Charlotte.  This  was  a  subject  of  congratulation;  The  former 
Church  had  been  so  small  that  it  was  scarcely  possible  that  a  self-sup- 
porting congregation  could  be  gathered  together  in  it.  The  new  build- 
ing, much  more  spacious  and  appropriate  to  the  worship  of  God,  had 
brought  a  heavy  burden  of  debt  on  a  feeble  congregation,  which  they 
were  gradually  paying  off,  but  which  seemed  likely  to  encumber  them 
for  some  years  longer;  when  the  liberality  of  John  Wilkes,  Esq., 
induced  him  to  discharge  what  remained  due,  and  thus  enable  me  to 
consecrate  the  church.  On  that  occasion  Messrs.  T.  G.  Haughton  and 
Staudemayer  read  Prayers,  and  Dr.  Curtis,  to  whose  early  labors  our 
congregation  in  Charlotte  owed  its  origin,  read  the  sentence  of  conse- 
cration of  the  new  building,  which  attested  its  progress,  and  I  preached 
the  sermon.  The  Rector,  Mr.  Everhart,  and  Messrs.  George  B.  and 
William  R.  Wetmore,  and  Mr.  Roberts,  also  took  part  in  the  services." 

I  must  here  say  a  few  words  about  this  Church  built  in  1857-58, 
which  we  are  now  about  to  abandon  for  a  new  structure.  And  in  the 
first  place  we  must  all  remember  that  such  removals,  with  whatever 
of  regret  and  sadness  they  may  be  accompanied,  are  necessary  and 
right.  The  welfare  of  the  congregation  demands  a  more  commodious 
and  expensive  place  of  worship.  As  in  1855  it  was  found  that  the 
growth  and  work  of  the  Church  demanded  a  larger  and  more  attrac- 
tive edifice,  so  we  have  come  to  feel  that  we  cannot  exert  the  influ- 
ence we  should  exert  in  the  community,  nor  do  the  work  providentially 
laid  upon  us,  within  the  narrow  walls  of  the  Church  built  more  than 
thirty  years  ago.  Doubtless  it  was  a  sad  day  for  many  of  our  brethren 
and  fathers,  our  predecessors  in  this  parish,  when  they  beheld  the  lit- 
tle Chapel,  which  had  first  received  and  sheltered  their  feeble  flock, 
sold,  and  its  consecrated  walls  converted  to  secular  uses.  And  it  is 
certain  that  the  falling  bricks  from  these  walls  will  knock  sadly  against 
many  hearts  in  this  congregation.  Many  infants  and  adults  have  here 
been  washed  in  the  cleansing  waters  of  God's  regenerating  sacrament, 
and  many  of  them  have  in  due  course  knelt  at  this  rail  to  renew  and 
ratify  their  Baptismal  vows,  and  to  seek  the  gracious  gifts  of  the 
Spirit.  Here  have  men  and  women  been  blessed  in  the  holy  estate  of 
Matrimony;  and  into  these  doors  we  have  brought  our  dead,  and  strug- 
gled to  realize,  in  the  midst  of  the  agony  of  our  bereavement,  the 
blessedness  of  the  Christian's  triumph  over  death.  The  bread  of  life 
has  for  a  third  of  a  century  been  broken  at  this  altar,  and  here  has  the 
word  of  God  been  spoken — with  however  much  of  ignorance  and  weak- 
ness— by  God's  appointed  servants,  and  has  not  been  here  spoken  alto- 
gether in  vain.  Our  hearts  must  feel  a  touch  of  sadness  at  the  thought 
of  standing  no  more  within  these  walls,  though  we  may  at  the  same 
time  realize  the- necessity  and  the  advantage  of  the  change,  by  which 


St.  Peter's  Church,  Charlotte,  N.  C.  15 

this  building  is  to  pass  away,  in  order  to  be  succeeded  by  another  more 
suited  to  our  present  wants.  I  do  not  envy  that  person  who  is  without 
such  a  sentiment  for  places  associated  with  so  many  holy  emotions  and 
heavenly  hopes. 

And  I  will  go  a  step  further,  and  say  that  I  have  never  entertained 
any  desire  to  see  this  building  overturned,  merely  because  I  hoped  for 
a  more  beautiful  and  attractive  structure  to  replace  it.  Whatever  faults 
this  building  may  exhibit,  it  is  a  great  mistake  for  anyone  to  suppose 
that  it  is  without  architectural  merit.  There  have  been  times  when  I 
feared  that  it  was  quite  possible  that  we  might  in  place  of  this  erect  a 
building  much  less  correct  and  appropriate  as  an  example  of  Church 
architecture.  Indeed,  this  building  possesses  some  points  of  no  incon- 
siderable interest  from  a  historical  and  architectural  point  of  view. 
The  design  and  plans,  from  which  this  Church  was  built,  were  not 
prepared  by  an  architect,  but  by  one  of  the  vestry  of  the  parish  at  the 
time,  Col.  William  A.  Williams.  It  may,  therefore,  be  lacking  in  many 
technical  points  of  construction.  But  at  the  same  time  it  presents  an 
interesting  illustration  and  example  of  the  development  of  Church 
architecture  in  America.     Suffer  me  to  enlarge  a  little  upon  this  point. 

Church  architecture  in  America,  as  a  distinct  branch  of  the  art, 
is  the  development  of  the  last  fifty  or  sixty  years.  It  took  its  rise  in 
the  study  of  the  Gothic  architecture  of  our  mother  Church  of  England. 
However  far  it  may  have  departed  from  the  original,  and  however 
much  within  the  past  few  years  it  may  have  wandered  off  in  the  direc- 
tion of  Italian  and  Byzantine  models,  it  is  still  a  fact  that  its  first  origin 
and  development  was  in  the  forms  of  the  so-called  Gothic  architecture 
of  the  English  Church.  The  pointed  arch,  the  long  nave,  the  sharp 
roof,  with  its  open-timber  construction,  or  with  real  or  imitation  vault- 
ing— these  and  other  characteristics  of  the  Gothic  style  have  come  to 
be  commonly  understood  as  denoting  a  building  intended  for  ecclesias- 
tical purposes  ;  and  almost  all  denominations,  making  any  attempts  at 
churchly  effect  in  their  buildings,  have  followed  our  lead  in  this  direc- 
tion. And  I  am  inclined  to  think  that  just  so  far  as  churches,  of  what- 
ever denomination,  shall  continue  to  be  places  set  apart  for  the  wor- 
ship of  Almighty  God,  the  preference  for  the  essential  features  of  this 
style  of  building  will  continue.  When,  instead  of  being  places  of  divine 
worship  by  the  people,  churches  become  merely  audience  chambers  for 
listening  to  eloquent  or  sensational  speakers,  or  for  entertainments  of 
so-called  sacred  music ;  or  develop  into  social  parlors,  or  religious  club- 
houses, with  kitchens,  and  pantries,  and  dining-rooms,  there  is  no  tell- 
ing what  startling  developments  we  may  see  in  their  architecture.  The 
Grecian,  the  Italian,  the  Byzantine,  being  essentially  secular  in  their 
origin  and  purpose,  lend  themselves  much  more  readily  to  such  •uses. 
The  English  Gothic,  on  the  contrary,  though  exhibiting  many  varieties 


16  St.  Peter's  Church,  Charlotte,  N.  C. 

during  its  long  course  of  development,  prosperity,  and  decay,  was  from 
first  to  last  essentially  religious  in  its  whole  spirit.  It  was  the  faith  and 
love  and  hope  of  our  ancestors,  and  their  sense  of  the  divine  glory  and 
beauty  and  dignity  of  worship,  expressed  in  wood  and  stone.  It  was 
meant  for  worship,  and  it  caught  the  spirit  of  the  men  who  worked  it 
out;  and  it  is,  and  always  shall  be  for  us,  the  architecture  of  the 
Church,  because,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  it  is  religious  through  and  through. 
Like  all  true  art  it  makes  the  beholder  feel  the  spirit  and  meaning  of 
the  artist,  whether  he  have  skill  in  the  mystery  himself  or  not. 

Now  it  is  a  very  remarkable  fact,  that  this  English  Gothic  archi- 
tecture was  introduced  into  America,  not  by  an  architect,  but  by  an 
amateur,  and  he  a  clergyman.  When  Bishop  Hopkins,  in  the  early 
days  of  his  ministry,  was  rector  of  Trinity  Church,  Pittsburgh,  Pa.,  it 
became  necessary  for  the  congregation  to  build  a  new  church.  A  little 
while  before  this  time,  he  had  borrowed  from  a  traveling  Englishman 
a  large  work  on  Gothic  architecture,  illustrated  with  many  plates  of 
plans,  elevations,  sections,  and  other  details  of  construction  and  orna- 
mentation in  this  style.  Being  himself  an  artist  and  draughtsman  of 
no  ordinary  skill,  and  becoming  much  interested  in  the  subject  so 
graphically  displayed  in  this  work,  Mr.  Hopkins  made  careful  and 
accurate  copies  of  many  of  these  plates  while  the  books  remained  in 
his  possession,  and  mastered,  as  far  as  time  permitted,  the  principles, 
methods,  and  rules  of  construction,  as  laid  down  therein.  When  con- 
fronted with  the  problem  of  building  a  new  church,  he  desired  to  have 
it  constructed  in  this  ancient  style,  after  the  example  of  the  temples  of 
our  Mother  Church ;  but  being  unable  to  find  any  architect  competent 
to  prepare  the  plans,  he  was  forced  to  undertake  to  be  the  architect 
himself ;  and  the  church  was  built  from  plans  drawn  by  himself,  down 
to  the  minutest  details  of  construction  and  ornament,  even  the  paint- 
ing of  the  ceiling  being  designed  and  executed  by  him,  so  far  as  to 
show  the  painters  how  it  must  be  done. 

This  church,  built  by  Mr.  Hopkins  in  1825,  was  the  first  church 
in  the  United  States  designed  to  be  purely  Gothic  throughout,  so  far 
as  the  knowledge  and  means  of  the  builders  would  permit. 

As  defective  as  this  work  was,  judged  by  later  standards,  it  at- 
tracted most  favorable  attention  at  the  time;  and  the  architect  was 
frequently  called  upon  to  furnish  suggestions,  plans,  or  other  assistance, 
by  parishes  in  all  parts  of  the  country,  when  a  new  church  was  to  be 
built.  So  numerous  were  these  applications,  and  so  favorable  the  im- 
pression made  upon  Churchmen  by  his  attempt  to  revive  this  ancient 
style  of  church  building,  that  he 'was  induced  to  think  that  a  short 
manual  upon  the  subject  might  prove  interesting  and  valuable,  espe- 
cially to  his  brethren  of  the  clergy.  He  began,  therefore,  to  prepare 
a  short  treatise  of  an  elementary  character ;   and,  in  order  to  provide 


St.  Peter's  Church,  Charlotte,  N.  C.  17 

it  with  the  necessary  plates  of  plans  and  illustrations,  he  learned  the 
art  of  drawing  upon  the  lithographic  stone.  In  1836,  several  years 
after  he  had  become  Bishop  of  Vermont,  he  brought  out  his  "Essay  on 
Gothic  Architecture,"  "designed  chiefly  for  the  use  of  the  Clergy." 
To  this  essay  he  added  lithographs,  all  drawn  upon  the  stone  by  him- 
self, of  Trinity  Church,  Pittsburgh,  with  some  of  the  plans  and  details, 
together  with  several  designs  for  churches  in  the  same  general  style, 
but  of  different  sizes  and  of  varying  cost,  in  order  to  meet  the  necessi- 
ties of  larger  or  smaller  parishes.  He  also  gave  pictures  of  a  notable 
old  English  Church,  and  of  several  ecclesiastical  monuments  in  that 
country,  by  way  of  illustrating  the  subject  of  his  essay. 

I  was  so  fortunate  as  to  pick  up  a  copy  of  this  first  American  pub- 
lication upon  Gothic  architecture,  at  a  second-hand  bookstore  in  Balti- 
more a  few  years  ago ;  and  I  was  at  once  struck  with  the  resemblance 
between  Bishop  Hopkins'  designs  and  the  older  Gothic  churches  which 
I  had  seen  in  various  parts  of  the  country.  Without  having  any  special 
knowledge  of  the  subject,  I  was  yet  familiar  in  a  general  way  with  the 
course  of  development  of  Gothic  architecture,  from  the  simple  and 
severer  forms  of  the  Early  English,  to  the  more  elaborate  and  beautiful 
buildings  of  the  Decorated  Gothic  in  the  thirteenth  and  fourteenth  cen- 
turies ;  and  then  through  the  stately  Perpendicular  to  the  Debased 
Gothic,  or  the  Tudor  styles.  In  looking  at  Bishop  Hopkins'  designs, 
and  observing  the  point  at  which  the  art  had  been  taken  up  in  America, 
I  was  surprised  and  interested  to  find,  that  he  had  begun  with  the  late, 
debased  style ;  and  that  the  subsequent  progress  of  Gothic  architecture 
in  our  country  has  been  but  a  tracing  backward  of  the  lines  of  its 
original  development  to  the  earlier  and  more  beautiful  and  purer  forms 
of  the  Decorated  and  the  Early  English.  The  depressed  arch,  struck 
from  two  centers,  the  perpendicular  tracery  in  the  windows,  the  low 
roof,  the  battlemented  side  walls,  are  all  characteristic  of  the  later  stages 
of  the  art,  and  all  these  are  found  in  Bishop  Hopkins'  book.  It  was 
as  if  the  highest  and  purest  art  could  not  be  understood  or  appreciated 
at  first,  until  the  taste  and  judgment  had  been  cultivated  and  developed; 
and  so  the  debased  style  was  first  accepted  by  the  untrained  mind,  and 
then,  as  time  and  study  and  practice  revealed  the  true  principles  of  the 
art,  taste  and  the  true  critical  judgment  revived,  and  gradually  led  us 
back  to  the  earlier  and  better  work  of  the  medieval  builders. 

Now  if  this  be  so,  the  very  defects  of  our  earlier  American  churches 
have  an  interest  and  value,  as  illustrating  the  steps  by  which  we  have 
attained  to  better  things ;  and  these  defects  reflect  honor  and  not  dis- 
credit upon  the  designers  and  builders  of  these  older  churches,  because 
they  are  the  evidence  of  a  taste,  and  skill  beyond  their  day,  which,  with 
whatever  of  defect  and  error,  was  still  steadily  aspiring  and  mounting 
upward.     These  battlemented  walls,  and  false  ceilings,  and  long  mul- 


1 8  St.  Peter's  Church,  Charlotte,  'N.  C. 

Honed  windows  (of  the  old  St.  Peter's  Church)  are  marks  of  progress, 
and  evidence  of  the  attainments  of  the  generation  preceding  us. 

This  church,  in  which  we  shall  probably  meet  but  a  little  while 
longer,  is  one  of  those  built  under  the  influence  of  Bishop  Hopkins' 
essay.  A  better  type  of  that  style  is  the  Chapel  of  the  Cross,  Chapel 
Hill,  my  first  parish  Church,  which  is  almost  an  exact  reproduction 
of  one  of  Bishop  Hopkins'  designs.  St.  James'  Church,  Wilmington, 
was  another  in  much  the  same  style,  though  recent  changes  and  addi- 
tions have  greatly  altered  its  appearance.  It  must  be  said,  however, 
that  our  St.  Peter's  represents  an  advance  upon  Bishop  Hopkins' 
designs.  We  have  here  the  lancet  windows  of  the  earlier  style,  and  the 
pure  Gothic  arch  in  doorways  and  chancel.  And  although  the  battle- 
mented  walls  and  pinnacled  buttresses  were  retained,  yet  the  roof  is 
raised  to  a  steeper  pitch,  and  the  pinnacles,  except  upon  the  corner 
buttresses,  were  either  given  up,  or  else  have  been  demolished.  Colonel 
Williams  does  not  remember  what  models  he  followed  in  preparing  the 
plans,  but,  whatever  they  may  have  been,  and  whether  he  had  seen 
Bishop  Hopkins'  essay  or  not,  his  plans  represented  that  first  stage  of 
American  Gothic  architecture,  when  it  had  begun  to  be  modified  by 
advancing  knowledge  and  the  increasing  appreciation  of  the  earlier 
English  forms. 

I  say,  therefore,  that  this  Church  has  in  my  eyes  a  distinct  interest 
and  value,  as  marking  a  certain  stage  in  the  progress  of  our  Church 
architecture,  and  I  have  always  felt  that,  where  the  eye  can  see  in  this 
building  nothing  of  beauty  or  significance,  it  is  because  the  mind  is 
not  furnished  with  the  knowledge  necessary  to  supplement  the  vision. 
In  order  that  we  may  see,  there  must  be  the  eye  to  mark  and  the  mind 
to  receive  and  apprehend,  as  well  as  the  object  to  be  seen.  And  I 
should  rejoice  were  it  possible,  while  building  our  larger  and  more 
beautiful  church,  to  preserve  this  older  one,  that  it  might  be  for  some 
subordinate  parish  use,  and  might  stand  as  an  evidence  of  the  piety  and 
devotion  of  the  years  and  of  the  brethren  passed  away. 

For  the  present  I  have  done.  I  only  proposed  to  myself  in  the  first 
instance  to  tell  briefly  the  story  of  the  old  church  edifice,  and  to  speak 
a  word  in  its  honor  before  it  is  leveled  with  the  dust.  In  setting  about 
it,  earlier  incidents  presented  themselves,  and  I  have  thought  it  might 
be  as  well  to  gather  them  up  for  your  attention. 

Let  us  remember,  in  closing,  that  change  and  decay  are  incident  to 
our  present  existence,  and  because  a  thing  is  old  and  passing  away  is 
no  reason  why  it  should  not  be  honored.  If  it  has  done  its  work  in 
its  day,  it  has  won  a  title  to  our  respect  and  grateful  memory.  Well 
would  it  be  for  priest  and  for  people,  for  me  and  for  you,  if  we  could 
feel  that  we  have  done  our  duty  in  God's  service  as  well  as  this  house 
which  we  now  dismantle. 


St.  Peter's  Church 

Charlotte,  N.  C. 


Thirty  IJears  of  Its  Life  and  IDork 

1863-1893 


As  in  the  case  of  hospitals,  so  in  the  case  of  orphanages,  the  Church 
has  set  the  example  and  led  the  way  in  this  beautiful  charity,  both  in 
the  city  of  Charlotte  and  in  the  State  of  North  Carolina. 

— Jos.  Blount  Cheshire 


St.  Peter's  Church,  Charlotte,  N.  C. 


St  Peters  Church 

Charlotte,  N.  C 
1863-1893 

My  Dear  Brethren : 

Last  fall,  at  the  request  of  your  rector,  I  promised 
to  consecrate  St.  Peter's  Church  on  Whitsunday  of  this 
year.  At  that  time  neither  of  us  was  aware  of  the  date 
of  Whitsunday,  1921.  I  was  surprised  and  interested  to 
find,  only  a  few  weeks  ago,  that  it  is  the  fortieth  anni- 
versary of  my  acceptance  of  the  call  to  this  parish,  and 
my  first  service,  on  the  Fourth  Sunday  after  Trinity — 
May  15,  1881.  That  service  was,  of  course,  in  the  build- 
ing which  was  pulled  down  in  the  fall  of  1892,  to  be 
replaced  by  your  present  parish  church. 

In  that  old  St.  Peter's  Church,  I  held  my  last  service 
in  the  evening  of  Tuesday,  September  27,  1892,  just 
thirty  years  and  four  days  after  its  consecration — Sep- 
tember 23,  1862.  At  that  last  service  I  delivered  an 
address  upon  the  history  of  the  Church  in  Charlotte 
and  St.  Peter's  Parish,  from  the  beginning  of  our  church 
work  in  Charlotte  down  to  the  consecration  of  that  old 
church.  Having  been  requested  by  your  rector,  the  Rev. 
Edwin  A.  Penick,  Jr.,  to  give  this  evening  a  further 
account  of  the  work  of  this  parish,  I  propose  to  take 
up  the  story  at  that  date,  1863,  and  to  give  as  best  I 
may,  the  story,  or  some  part  of  the  story,  of  its  later  life. 
— Jos  Blount  Cheshire 


St.  Peters  Church,  Charlotte 

Thirty  IJears  of  Its  Life  and  IDork 


*T  the  consecration,  September  23,  1862,  of  the  church  preced- 
ing our  present  building,  the  Rev.  George  M.  Everhart  was 
rector  of  the  parish.  He  resigned  in  February,  1866,  on 
account  of  ill  health,  though  he  lived  to  do  good  work  for 
many  years  longer.  It  was  in  February,  1867,  that  the  Rev.  Benj.  S. 
Bronson  became  rector,  the  services  of  the  church  during  the  interval 
having  been  regularly  maintained,  as  far  as  possible,  by  that  ever-faith- 
ful layman,  Mr.  John  Wilkes.  Mr.  Bronson  continued  rector  until 
November  1,  1878.  From  March  25  to  October  1,  1879,  the  Rev.  Zina 
Doty  was  rector.  The  Rev.  John  K.  Mason  succeeded  him  January  9, 
1880,  and  resigned  February,  1881. 

As  already  stated,  I  accepted  the  rectorship  May  15,  1881,  and  con- 
tinued in  charge  until  my  consecration  as  Assistant  Bishop  of  the 
Diocese,  October  15,  1893.  The  Rev.  Charles  C.  Quin  was  my  assistant, 
though  without  official  connection  with  the  parish,  from  the  first  of 
March,  1882,  to  the  end  of  the  year  1883;  and  the  Rev.  Chas.  N.  F. 
Jeffery  was  regular  assistant  in  the  parish  during  1892. 

It  is  impossible  in  the  time  at  my  command  to  do  more  than  con- 
sider briefly  some  special  aspect  of  the  life  of  the  parish.  I  cannot 
write  the  history  of  thirty  years  with  any  fullness.  I  purpose,  there- 
fore, to  consider  St.  Peter's  Church  in  its  relation  to  the  development 
and  extension  of  the  work  and  influence  of  the  Church  in  this  part  of 
the  Diocese. 

The  true  measure  of  the  real  life  and  power  of  any  local  church 
is  not  what  it  does  in  the  development  of  its  own  congregational  inter- 
ests, but  the  power  that  goes  out  from  it  into  the  life  of  the  world 
around  it.  This  diffusive  power  may  result  in  drawing  into  the  sphere 
of  its  own  life  and  organization,  the  material  upon  which  its  influence 
is  exerted,  and  thus  cause  it  to  develop  into  a  larger  and  more  powerful 
parish,  extending  its  bounds  and  increasing  its  beneficent  activities. 
And  this  is  ordinarily  one  important  result  of  vigorous  parochial  life ; 
and  it  is  a  result  of  very  great  value  and  importance.  St.  Peter's 
Parish  has  shown  much  vitality  of  this  kind.  The  small  congregation 
of  137  communicants,  whom  I  found  here  in  1881,  worshiping  in  the 
old  church,  has  now  grown  to  a  body  of  627  communicants,  occupying 
and  employing  for  its  worship  and  its  internal  activities  these  extensive 
and  beautiful  buildings.     This  growth  of  itself  is  highly  creditable  to 


22  St.  Peter's  Church,  Charlotte,  N.  C. 

rector  and  people.  But  there  are  even  more  important  results  of  the 
vigorous  life  of  a  parish,  seen  in  the  development  and  extension  of 
church  life  beyond  parochial  limits,  so  that  the  parish  becomes  a  center, 
from  which  seeds  of  other  organizations  are  scattered  abroad;  and 
other  parishes,  churches,  and  institutions  develop,  and  extend  the  life 
in  wider  fields  of  activity  and  influence.  In  this  latter  kind  of  work 
St.  Peter's  Parish  has,  in  my  judgment,  shown  a  vitality,  power,  and 
fecundity,  more  remarkable  and  more  valuable  than  in  its  own  parochial 
growth.  "The  Son  of  Man  came  not  to  be  ministered  unto,  but  to 
minister" ;  and  His  Church  best  shows  itself  to  be  His  when  it  follows 
His  example.  The  true  honor  of  this  parish  does  not  lie  in  its  own 
handsome  church  and  large,  well-equipped  parish  home  and  numerous 
congregation,  but  in  the  extension  of  the  life  and  service  of  the  Church 
in  other  churches  and  congregations  and  institutions,  which  have,  in 
whole  or  in  part,  sprung  from  it,  and  been  planted  and  watered,  tended 
and  augmented  by  the  love  and  service  of  its  people.  This  part  of  the 
parish  history  I  desire  to  present,  and  however  inadequately  I  shall  do 
so,  I  believe  I  can  do  something  of  value  in  recalling  and  recording 
this  aspect  of  your  parochial  life. 

The  period  over  which  our  survey  will  extend  begins  in  the  trying 
time  of  war.  The  Confederate  war  so  totally  absorbed  all  the  energies 
of  our  people  that  there  was  little  opportunity  for  anything  else.  But 
it  is  very  greatly  to  the  honor  of  our  Church  and  Diocese,  that  all 
available  resources  were  employed  in  meeting  the  special  spiritual  needs 
of  the  time.  Bishop  Atkinson  mentions  in  his  address  to  the  Conven- 
tion of  1863,  that  the  liberality  of  Mr.  John  Wilkes  had  paid  off  the 
debt  still  resting  upon  St.  Peter's  Church,  Charlotte,  so  that  he  had 
been  able  to  consecrate  it  the  preceding  September.  The  same  generous 
layman,  early  in  1864,  so  far  as  I  can  make  out  the  date,  started  one 
of  the  most  noble  enterprises  ever  undertaken  in  this  community.  He 
formed  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  Publishing  Association,  for 
the  purpose  of  publishing  religious  literature  for  the  soldiers  of  the 
Confederate  Army.  When  in  1892  we  pulled  down  the  old  church  that 
we  might  erect  our  present  structure,  I  found  in  the  old  tower  a  mass 
of  printed  matter  entirely  composed  of  religious  treatises  of  a  popular 
character,  sermons,  tracts,  and  short  articles,  rather  poorly  printed  on 
dingy  paper,  with  the  imprint  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  Pub- 
lishing Association  on  the  title  page  of  each.  I  had  never  heard  of 
such  an  association,  and  in  the  hurry  of  those  busy  times,  when  rector, 
vestry,  and  people  were  greatly  pressed  with  the  burden  of  our  own 
work  in  endeavoring  to  push  on  the  building  of  the  church,  I  did  not 
think  enough  about  those  dingy  old  pamphlets  to  make  any  inquiry 
about  them.  And  a  very  few  months  afterwards  I  was  chosen  Bishop, 
and  the  many  matters  thus  crowded  upon  me  put  the  whole  thing  out 


St.  Peter's  Church,  Charlotte,  N.  C.  23 

of  my  mind.  Fortunately,  however,  with  a  sort  of  instinct  for  preserv- 
ing whatever  seemed  to  have  any  bearing  on  the  history  and  work  of 
the  Church  or  Diocese,  I  selected  one  copy  of  each  of  the  publications 
found  in  the  old  tower,  tied  them  up  securely,  and  put  them  among  my 
books  and  papers.  When  in  1910  I  came  almost  accidentally,  and  cer- 
tainly quite  without  ever  having  entertained  any  such  purpose,  to  write 
the  history  of  the  Church  in  the  Confederate  States,  I  learned  for  the 
first  time  of  this  noble  enterprise,  and  the  very  great  work  of  this 
Protestant  Episcopal  Church  Publishing  Association  in  providing  reli- 
gious literature  for  our  Southern  soldiers ;  and  then,  calling  to  mind 
the  bundle  of  old  tracts,  etc ,  found  in  the  church  tower,  I  hunted  it  up ; 
and  was  gratified  to  find  that  I  had  nearly  a  complete  set  of  the  pub- 
lications of  the  Association. 

So  far  as  I  have  been  able  to  discover,  the  Association  consisted 
on  its  business  side  of  Mr.  John  Wilkes  alone ;  and  with  him  was  asso- 
ciated his  rector,  the  Rev.  George  M.  Everhart,  as  editor  of  the  various 
publications.  I  cannot  sufficiently  lament  the  fact  that  I  knew  nothing 
of  this  until  after  the  death  of  both  Mr.  Wilkes  and  Mr.  Everhart. 
Mrs.  Wilkes,  when  I  talked  with  her  on  this  matter,  could  remember 
nothing  of  anyone  being  associated  with  Mr.  Wilkes  in  the  work,  and 
had  herself  been  accustomed  to  read  and  correct  the  proofs  of  the 
Church  Intelligencer,  which  after  the  summer  of  1864  was  published  by 
the  Association.  This  paper  had  failed,  and  was  discontinued  early  in 
1864.  Up  to  that  date  it  had  been  published  in  Raleigh  by  the  Rev. 
Thos.  S.  W.  Mott.  After  being  discontinued  for  about  six  months, 
Bishop  Atkinson  earnestly  pressed  Mr.  Wilkes  to  revive  it.  He  did  so, 
first  with  the  Rev.  Mr.  Everhart  as  editor ;  and  then  under  the  very 
able  conduct  of  the  Rev.  Fordyce  M.  Hubbard,  D.  D.,  professor  of 
Latin  in  the  University  of  North  Carolina,  but  no  less  distinguished 
in  the  literature  and,  learning  of  his  native  language. 

It  is  impossible  at  this  day  to  ascertain  the  extent  of  the  work  of 
this  Publishing  Association.  It  must  have  been  very  considerable. 
Orders  came  for  their  publications  from  all  the  States,  from  Virginia 
to  Mississippi,  and  one  issue  of  the  Church  Intelligencer  contains 
acknowledgements  of  over  ten  thousand  dollars  received  on  orders  for 
tracts  to  be  sent  to  the  soldiers.  Even  allowing  for  the  depreciation 
in  the  Confederate  currency,  this  indicates  quite  an  extensive  sale,  and 
certainly  there  was  no  more  useful  work  than  this  of  supplying  the 
men  in  camp  with  interesting  and  edifying  reading. 

Another  most  interesting  incident  of  the  same  period,  is  that 
through  the  instrumentality  of  Mr.  Wilkes,  St.  Peter's  Parish  par- 
ticipated in  the  importation  of  Bibles  and  Prayer  Books  from  England 
for  use  in  the  South,  and  specially  for  the  soldiers.  About  the  middle 
of  the  year  1864  six  parishes  united  in  supplying  funds  for  the  purchase 


24  St.  Peter's  Church,  Charlotte,  N.  C. 

of  five  bales  of  cotton  at  Wilmington.  These  were  shipped  on  the 
S.  S.  Cornubia,  ran  the  Blockade,  were  sold  in  England,  and  the  pro- 
ceeds were  used  to  have  an  edition  of  the  Prayer  Book  of  the  Church 
in  the  Confederate  States,  printed  by  Eyre  &  Spottiswood,  in  London, 
and  also  to  buy  Bibles.  These  were  successfully  run  through  the 
Blockade  to  Wilmington,  and  were  distributed  throughout  the  Diocese, 
and  to  our  North  Carolina  soldiers  in  the  Army.  Eyre  &  Spottiswood 
printed  two  other  editions  of  the  Confederate  Prayer  Book  for  a  Rich- 
mond publisher,  but  all  these  seem  to  have  been  aboard  a  steamer  which 
was  captured  or  destroyed  in  attempting  to  pass  through  the  blockading 
fleet.  So  far  as  is  known,  the  only  Confederate  Prayer  Books  used 
in  the  South  during  the  War,  were  those  brought  in  by  this  combination 
of  North  Carolina  Parishes. 

These  items  of  church  work  during  the  period  of  the  Confederate 
War,  make  a  most  interesting  and  creditable  record,  and  reflect  honor 
upon  the  parish.  The  Rev.  Mr.  Everhart,  who  was  rector  during  this 
period,  was  a  man  of  striking  personality  and  ability.  He  seems  to 
have  given  a  distinct  impulse  to  the  growth  of  the  parish,  and  to  the 
influence  and  reputation  of  the  Church  in  this  rather  difficult  field. 
He  was  faithfully  supported  in  his  work  by  a  small  but  notable  group, 
chiefly  the  following  men  and  their  families :  John  Wilkes,  William  R. 
Myers,  William  F.  Davidson,  John  G.  Bryce,  William  A.  Williams, 
William  A.  Lucas,  Dr.  Moses  M.  Orr,  and  others. 

A  new  era  in  our  secular  history  begins  with  the  years  following 
the  Confederate  War,  and  a  new  era  in  our  parish  life  seems  associated 
with  the  same  years,  and  the  new  conditions.  In  February,  1867,  the 
Rev.  Benjamin  S.  Bronson  became  rector  of  the  Parish,  and  the  course 
of  development  of  our  church  work  and  church  life  was,  it  seems  to 
me,  more  influenced  by  him  than  by  any  other  man  who  has  held  the 
position,  certainly  up  to  the  year  1893,  when  I  left  this  parish.  I  am 
all  the  more  careful  to  say  this  because  his  administration  was  not 
eminently  successful.  He  was  not  a  good  administrator.  I  think  I 
must  say  that  he  failed  in  many,  if  not  most  of  the  enterprises  which 
he  undertook.  But  he  had  vision.  He  looked  at  things  largely.  He 
aspired  and  he  attempted  and  he  struggled,  and  when  he  did  not  suc- 
ceed, he  at  least  put  ideas  into  other  men's  minds.  He  opened  up  vistas 
of  achievement  and  of  progress,  and  he  laid  some  good  and  solid  foun- 
dations upon  which  those  who  followed  him  might  build.  He  was  not 
satisfied  with  merely  parochial  activity  and  the  gathering  of  a  congre- 
gation within  the  walls  of  his  parish  church.  He  looked  upon  the 
parish  as  an  instrument  of  useful  service  in  the  community  and  for  the 
community.  He  felt  that  the  Church  must  lift  up  its  eyes  and  view 
the  needs  of  the  world  and  the  opportunities  for  ministering  to  those 
needs. 


St.  Peter's  Church,  Charlotte,  N.  C.  25 

One  of  the  great  needs  in  the  South  after  the  war  was  good  schools. 
Mr.  Bronson's  first  and  most  ambitious  enterprise  was  a  school,  pro- 
jected on  a  large  and  generous  scale,  to  be  built  and  sustained  as  a 
permanent  church  institution.  I  am  not  prepared  to  give  a  history  of 
this  enterprise,  but  something  must  be  said  about  it.  Mr.  Bronson  was 
a  native  of  the  State  of  Maine  and  a  graduate  of  Yale  College.  He 
came  to  North  Carolina  as  a  teacher,  and  was  ordained  by  Bishop 
Atkinson  in  May,  1854.  His  early  ministry  had  been  passed  in  Bertie 
and  the  adjoining  counties.  Wherever  he  lived  he  made  many  warm 
friends  and  admirers.  He  was  the  best  classical  scholar  I  have  known 
among  the  clergy  of  the  Diocese,  and  a  man  of  warm  and  generous 
nature.  While  struggling  to  establish  the  school  in  this  parish,  the 
family  of  a  deceased  friend  and  parishioner,  Mr.  Lewis  Thompson,  of 
Bertie,  gave  him  a  considerable  sum  of  money,  several  thousand  dol- 
lars, toward  his  work.  The  school  had  been  begun  as  a  parochial  enter- 
prise, and  was  called  St.  Peter's  School.  Immediately  upon  coming 
into  the  parish  he  had  interested  the  vestry  in  his  plans.  The  vestry 
had  authorized  and  been  responsible  for  his  first  purchase  of  land,  and 
had  taken  title  to  property,  borrowed  money,  given  mortgages,  and 
generally  borne  a  very  considerable  part  in  the  enterprise.  After  this 
gift  from  the  Thompsons,  a  development  in  Mr.  Bronson's  purposes 
appears.  He  had  visited  distant  parts  of  the  State  and  country,  seek- 
ing support  in  his  enterprise,  and  he  proceeded  to  expand  his  plans. 
The  name  was  changed  from  St.  Peter's  School  to  The  Thompson 
Institute,  and  preparations  were  made  for  giving  it  a  Diocesan  char- 
acter, and  for  conveying  all  the  property,  whether  in  the  hands  of  the 
vestry  or  of  Mr.  Bronson,  to  a  board  of  trustees  of  the  Thompson 
Institute. 

This  was  in  1872,  and  seems  to  have  been  the  culmination  of  the 
effort.  Possibly  the  financial  troubles  of  1873  helped  to  check  the 
progress  of  the  school.  The  vestry  seem  to  have  taken  no  part  in  it 
after  this,  and  the  Thompson  Institute  failed.  Mr.  Bronson  taught  for 
some  years  himself,  and  employed  other  teachers.  He  burned  brick, 
and  put  up  the  building  now  known  as  "Thompson  Hall,"  of  the  Thomp- 
son Orphanage.  He  gave  it  much  time  and  thought  and  labor.  Doubt- 
less it  was  a  disadvantage  to  him  in  his  parochial  and  pastoral  work, 
and  caused  restlessness  and  dissatisfaction  both  to  him  and  his  people. 
But  it  had  its  value  in  helping  to  create  in  the  parish  a  sense  of  respon- 
sibility for  things  beyond  merely  congregational  interests. 

Another  enterprise,  small  at  first,  but  now  one  of  our  great  local 
institutions,  had  its  beginning  under  Mr.  Bronson.  Several  ladies  of 
St.  Peter's  Church  had  become  interested  in  an  old  woman,  whose 
destitute  and  feeble  condition  made  her  entirely  dependent  upon  their 
charity.     At  first  they  merely  supplied  her   with  necessary   food   and 


26  St.  Peter's  Church,  Charlotte,  N.  C. 

clothing.  But  finally,  being  turned  out  of  her  lodging  for  non-payment 
of  rent,  these  good  ladies  were  obliged  to  rent  a  small  house,  and  to 
provide  for  her  entire  support.  This  put  into  their  minds  the  idea  of 
providing  a  place  for  the  care  of  the  poor  and  helpless.  Whether  Mr. 
Bronson  suggested  this  I  do  not  know,  but  it  was  quite  in  line  with 
his  ideas  of  Church  work,  and  he  took  it  up  with  enthusiasm  and  urged 
it  on,  and  offered  to  give  the  brick  for  such  a  building.  He  had  been 
burning  brick  for  his  school  building,  and  in  a  small  way  had  been 
selling  brick  to  help  on  his  work.  At  this  time  Miss  Hattie  Moore  lived 
in  a  house  which  stood  on  the  spot  now  occupied  by  the  chancel  of  St. 
Peter's  Church.  For  a  good  many  years  she  carried  on  a  school  for 
small  children.  She  had  organized  a  society  among  her  scholars  for 
such  good  work  as  they  could  do,  and  called  it  the  "Busy  Bees."  She 
proposed  that  these  Busy  Bees  should  raise  the  money  to  buy  a  lot 
for  "St.  Peter's  Home  and  Hospital."  The  vestry  and  Ladies'  Aid 
Society  also  took  up  the  matter,  and  a  beginning  was  made.  A  lot  was 
bought,  and  was  paid  for  by  Miss  Hattie  Moore's  "Busy  Bees" ;  and  in 
1877,  in  connection  with  his  presence  in  Charlotte  for  the  Diocesan 
Convention  of  that  year,  Bishop  Atkinson  laid  the  cornerstone  of  "St. 
Peter's  Home  and  Hospital." 

While  Mr.  Bronson's  chief  thought  was  for  developing  church  work 
in  permanent  institutions,  he  was  not  wholly  neglectful  of  parochial 
expansion.  For  a  while  he  had  carried  on  a  Mission  Sunday  School  in 
the  brick  schoolhouse,  which  used  to  stand  near  the  corner  of  Tenth 
and  D  Streets,  in  that  part  of  Charlotte  then  called  Mechanicsville. 

Like  many  other  good  men,  Mr.  Bronson  failed  in  his  efforts  to 
establish  his  school.  While  a  fine  scholar,  and  not  without  talent  and 
inspirational  power  as  a  teacher,  'he  was  very  greatly  lacking  in  con- 
structive and  administrative  ability.  He  could  see  and  design,  and  lay 
out  great  and  admirable  plans,  but  he  lacked  method,  attention  to  detail, 
and  the  patient,  persistent,  plodding  quality  necessary  to  carry  out 
design  into  accomplishment.  And  all  his  thought  and  effort  and  time 
being  absorbed  in  his  school,  or  much  the  greater  part  of  it,  his  parochial 
and  pastoral  work  suffered.  And  so  there  came  about  a  want  of 
sympathetic  co-operation  between  rector  and  people,  or  at  any  rate 
between  rector  and  vestry.  There  was  mutual  unrest,  and  about  the  end 
of  1878  Mr.  Bronson  resigned. 

One  of  the  most  interesting  and  notable  events  connected  with  his 
rectorship  was  the  Confirmation,  and  then  some  years  later,  the 
Ordination  to  the  Ministry,  of  the  Rev.'  Edwin  A.  Osborne,  whose 
beloved  presence  with  us  makes  it  impossible  for  me  to  say  what  his  life 
and  work  have  meant  to  the  Church  in  Charlotte,  and  to  the  whole 
Diocese  during  the  forty-four  years  which  have  passed  since  his  Ordi- 
nation in  May,  1877. 


St.  Peter's  Church,  Charlotte,  N.  C.  2.7 

I  do  not  think  it  is  unjust  to  the  Rev.  Zina  Doty  and  the  Rev. 
John  K.  Mason,  who  in  succession  followed  the  Rev.  Mr.  Bronson,  to 
say  that,  so  far  as  I  can  learn,  nothing  of  special  importance  marked 
their  brief  rectorships.  Neither  of  them  remained  more  than  about  a 
year.  Mr.  Doty,  I  believe,  remained  less  than  twelve  months.  He 
did  not  impress  the  people  as  a  man  of  ability.  The  only  thing  I 
remember  to  have  heard  about  him  is  that,  having  spoken  of  St.  Mark 
as  an  apostle,  and  someone  saying  to  him  that  St.  Mark  was  not  an 
apostle,  he  maintained  that  he  was,  and  proposed  to  prove  it  by  refer- 
ence to  Appleton's  Encyclopedia! 

Mr.  Mason  was  an  able  man,  admired  and  beloved,  and  became  one 
of  the  distinguished  men  of  the  Church  in  the  United  States.  But  while 
in  Charlotte  he  was  in  bad  health,  and  he  felt  obliged  to  resign  after 
a  short  service. 

Some  time  in  the  spring  of  1881,  Mr.  Mason  having  left  Charlotte, 
I  was  called  to  be  his  successor.  Bishop  Lyman,  only  a  few  weeks 
before,  had  expressed  to  me  his  desire  that  I  should  not  leave  Chapel 
Hill.  I  therefore  replied  by  return  mail,  declining  the  call  to  this 
parish.  I  had  been  put  in  charge  of  the  Chapel  of  the  Cross,  Chapel 
Hill,  by  Bishop  Atkinson,  when  he  had  ordained  me  on  Easter  Day, 
1878;  and  I  had  my  first  service  there  on  the  Third  Sunday  in  May 
of  that  year.  I  had  told-  the  Bishop  that  it  was  my  desire  to  serve 
wherever  he  might  put  me.  In  declining  the  call  to  Charlotte,  I  only 
acted  upon  the  principle  which  I  had  adopted.  Such  calls  as  I  had 
received — only  two  or  three,  as  far  as  I  remember — I  had  declined 
without  really  giving  them  any  serious  consideration.  A  few  days 
after  receiving  and  declining  this  call  to  Charlotte,  I  had  a  letter  from 
Bishop  Lyman  saying  that  he  desired  me  to  accept  this  call  to  Charlotte. 
I  wrote  him  that  only  a  few  weeks  before  he  had  told  me  that  he  wished 
me  to  remain  in  Chapel  Hill,  and  so  I  had  declined.  He  replied  at 
once,  saying  that  a  call  to  Hillsboro  and  a  call  to  Charlotte  were  two 
very  different  things,  and  that  he  had  written  the  vestry  at  Charlotte 
to  repeat  their  call,  and  he  would  see  that  I  should  go  to  them.  In  the 
meantime,  however,  the  vestry  of  St.  Peter's  had  extended  an  invitation 
to  the  Rev.  Nathaniel  Harding,  of  Washington;  but  in  a  very  short 
time,  Mr.  Harding  also  declined.  Whereupon  the  invitation  to  me  was 
renewed.  I  wrote  that  I  would  be  with  them  for  Sunday,  May  15,  and 
give  them  my  decision.  Late  Saturday  night  I  reached  Charlotte,  and 
was  cordially  received  by  Mr.  John  Wilkes,  who  entertained  me  during 
my  brief  visit.  The  next  day,  May  15,  being  the  Fourth  Sunday  after 
Easter,  I  had  service  and  preached  in  St.  Peter's  Church,  and  announced 
to  the  congregation  that  I  had  accepted  the  call  of  the  vestry,  not 
because  I  had  any  desire  to  come,  but  in  deference  to  the  judgment  and 
wishes  of  those  whom  I  felt  I  ought  to  regard.     I  may  say  here  that 


2&  St.  Peter's  Church,  Charlotte,  N.  C. 

I  never  accepted  of  my  own  volition  a  call  to  a  parish.  Bishop  Atkinson 
placed  me  in  Chapel  Hill  at  my  ordination.  Bishop  Lyman  sent  me  to 
Charlotte.  Here  I  remained  until  made  Bishop.  Such  calls  as  I 
received  while  at  Chapel  Hill  or  in  Charlotte,  I  declined.  I  preferred  to 
do  the  work  assigned  to  me. 

While  preparing  to  remove  to  Charlotte,  I  was  told  by  some  per- 
sons that  St.  Peter's  was  a  hard  parish  to  get  on  with,  the  most  diffi- 
cult in  the  Diocese.  I  say  this  only  that  I  may  add  that  I  found  it 
altogether  otherwise.  I  was  received  with  the  utmost  kindness,  cour- 
tesy, and  consideration,  and  during  my  twelve  and  a  half  years  as 
rector,  had  as  little  trouble  or  discomfort  of  any  kind,  in  my  relations 
with  vestry  and  people,  as  is  to  be  expected  in  this  imperfect  state  of 
existence. 

I  am  not  sure  that  I  remember  accurately  the  names  of  all  the 
vestrymen  at  the  time  of  my  coming.  But,  during  the  early  period 
of  my  incumbency  it  seems  to  me  as  I  look  back  on  those  days,  that 
they  were  a  rather  remarkable  body  of  men.  Mr.  John  Wilkes  was  my 
Senior  Warden  as  long  as  I  remained  Rector.  Col.  Hamilton  C.  Jones 
was  Junior  Warden  for  most  of  that  time.  Then  there  were  Gen.  Thos. 
F.  Drayton,  Col-  John  P.  Thomas,  Judge  Wm.  M.  Shipp,  Mr.  Baxter 
H.  Moore,  Dr.  M.  A.  Bland,  Mr.  John  S.  Myers,  and  a  little  later  on, 
Mr.  Thos.  H.  Haughton,  Mr.  Joseph  G.  Shannonhouse,  and  Mr.  Piatt 
D.  Walker,  now  Judge  in  the  Supreme  Court,  with  others.  Of  course 
I  cannot  name  all.  Of  those  who  were  members  of  the  vestry  in  1881 — 
only  Mr.  John  S.  Myers  and  Dr.  M.  A.  Bland  remain. 

From  this  time  I  must  necessarily  speak  in  the  first  person.  The 
rector  represents  and  leads  the  parish,  if  in  any  degree  he  does  his 
work.  I  beg,  however,  that  you  will  not  think  what  I  shall  have  to 
say  of  the  work  of  the  parish,  however  often  the  personal  pronoun  may 
appear,  I  consider  as  my  own,  except  as  I  was  representing  the  people 
of  the  parish  and  acting  as  their  leader  and  representative,  doing  the 
work  with  and  by  their  co-operation,  sympathy,  and  support. 

I  found  in  the  parish  137  communicants.  The  parish  church  stood 
upon  a  lot  ninety-nine  feet  square.  The  Church  owned  St.  Peter's 
Home  and  Hospital,  a  one-story,  four-room  building,  and  the  lot  upon 
which  it  stood.  That  was  the  whole  of  our  parochial  possessions. 
Across  Sugar  Creek  stood  the  old  brick  school  building  erected  by  Mr. 
Bronson,  with  some  eighty  acres  of  land.  The  title  was  in  Mr.  Bronson, 
and  a  debt — I  do  not  now  remember  how  much — encumbered  the  prop- 
erty. Shortly  after  coming  to  Charlotte,  Mr.  Bronson  wrote  me  that 
I  could  have  the  property  for  any  church  work,  if  I  would  assume 
the  indebtedness  resting  upon  it.  I  felt  too  seriously  the  importance 
of  my  parochial  and  pastoral  work  to  be  willing  to  burden  myself  at 


St.  Peter's  Church,  Charlotte,  N.  C.  29 

that  time  with  additional  responsibilities,  and  I  declined  Mr.  Bronson's 
offer. 

The  first  matter  which  I  recall  as  attracting  my  attention  in  con- 
nection with  the  interests  of  the  parish  after  I  assumed  charge,  had 
to  do  with  St.  Peter's  Home,  as  it  was  then  called.  The  building  had 
been  erected  a  few  years  earlier,  as  has  been  mentioned,  just  before 
Mr.  Bronson's  departure.  A  good  woman  was  in  charge,  under  the 
direction  of  a  committee  of  the  ladies  of  the  parish.  It  was  used  for 
the  temporary  care  of  such  destitute  and  sick  persons  as  could  not  be 
otherwise  provided  for.  It  was  supported  by  voluntary  contributions, 
obtained  upon  no  general  system  of  method,  and  in  the  early  summer 
of  1881,  it  seemed  perilously  near  absolute  failure  for  want  of  funds 
to  meet  its  current  expenses.  The  good  ladies  who  had  it  in  charge 
were  in  great  distress  and  perplexity.  Some  of  their  Presbyterian 
friends  suggested  that  one  of  their  Presbyterian  societies  was  prepared 
to  relieve  them  of  the  burden  and  to  take  over  this  work.  I  am 
inclined  to  think  that  this  offer  proved  a  very  healthy  and  effective 
stimulus  to  the  struggling  enterprise.  Renewed  efforts  were  made  to 
raise  funds  for  its  support,  and  at  this  time  upon  a  more  systematic 
plan. 

There  was  a  retired  clergyman  then  residing  in  Charlotte,  the  Revr. 
Lucian  Holmes,  who  I  believe,  had  come  in  the  closing  period  of  Mr. 
Bronson's  school,  as  a  teacher,  and  had  afterwards  supported  himself 
for  some  years  by  teaching  a  small  private  school  for  boys.  He  was 
a  kind  and  amiable  man,  and  was  very  good  about  visiting  the  inmates 
of  St.  Peter's  Home  and  Hospital,  and  felt  much  concerned  for  its 
maintenance  and  success.  While  the  ladies  were  endeavoring  to  secure 
contributions  for  its  support,  Mr.  Holmes,  during  this  summer  of 
1881,  with  a  degree  of  energy  and  persistence  which  I  never  knew  him 
to  manifest  in  any  other  matter,  went  about  through  the  community, 
not  only  among  our  own  church  people,  but  generally  to  all  whom  he 
was  able  to  interest,  representing  the  good  work  done  by  having  this 
refuge  for  the  sick  and  suffering,  and  soliciting  not  contributions  at 
that  time,  but  subscriptions  for  regular  monthly  contributions  for  its 
support.  He  was  quite  successful  in  this  effort,  and  secured  many 
subscriptions,  mostly  for  small  sums,  but  in  the  aggregate  enough  to 
put  the  work  upon  a  much  securer  basis  than  before.  This  was  the 
first  regular  income  ever  proA)ided,  and  for  many  years  this  monthly 
subscription  was  the  chief  dependence  for  meeting  the  current  expenses. 
It  is  an  interesting  and  pathetic  circumstance  that  this  good  friend  and 
benefactor,  the  Rev.  Lucian  Holmes,  eight  or  ten  years  later,  died  in 
St.  Peter's  Hospital,  and  owed  the  comfort  and  attendance  of  his  last 
days  to  the  institution  which  he  had  helped  according  to  his  ability. 
From  these  small  beginnings  grew  the  present  St.  Peter's  Hospital,  the 


30  St.  Peter's  Church,  Charlotte,  N.  C. 

first  in  this  State,  so  far  as  I  know,  founded  and  sustained  entirely 
by  individual  benevolence.  I  can  only  indicate  thus  briefly  the  good 
works  which  have  sprung  out  of  the  life  of  this  parish. 

In  entering  upon  the  work  of  the  parish,  I  could  not  fail  to  observe 
the  large  negro  population  of  Charlotte.  In  the  old  Parish  Register 
are  many  entries  of  Baptisms  of  negroes,  and  there  had  been  a  num- 
ber of  negroes  confirmed  and  communicants  before  the  abolition  of 
slaven',  as  was  the  case  in  most  of  our  Southern  parishes.  It  is  grati- 
fying to  me  to  know  that  the  vestry  of  the  parish  were  deeply  interested 
in  this  matter.  A  number  of  entries  in  the  record  of  the  proceedings  of 
the  vestry,  show  them  as  co-operating  zealously  with  the  Rev.  Mr. 
Bronson  in  efforts  to  provide  services  and  a  clergyman  for  the  colored 
people  of  the  city,  and  later  on  endeavoring  to  secure  a  place  for  such 
services.  At  one  time,  in  1876,  the  Bishop  sent  a  colored  clergyman  to 
Charlotte,  in  an  effort  to  gather  up  the  few  who  remained,  and  to 
organize  some  systematic  Christian  work  among  the  negroes.  This 
effort  had  failed.  When  I  became  rector  the  only  colored  communicant 
whom  I  found,  was  a  woman  named  Annie  Wilson,  who  was  employed 
to  act  as  sexton  of  the  Church,  and  who  communed  regularly  with  the 
rest  of  the  congregation. 

I  proposed  to  the  Bishop  that  he  should  send  me  an  unmarried 
young  clergyman,  who  could  live  in  my  house,  that  by  his  help  I  might 
do  church  work  among  the  negroes,  as  the  demands  of  my  parochial 
work  were  too  great  to  allow  me  to  undertake  it  alone.  Bishop  Lyman 
then  sent  me  the  Rev.  Chas.  C.  Quin,  who  was  ordained  February  22, 
1882,  and  reached  Charlotte,  March  2.  He  was  a  member  of  my  family 
while  he  remained  in  Charlotte.  The  Bishop  gave  $200.00  a  year  from 
the  missionary  funds,  and  I  gave  him  $50.00  and  his  board  and  lodging. 
This  was  all  the  remuneration  he  received.  He  was  of  a  singularly 
cheerful,  amiable,  and  modest  demeanor,  unselfish  and  docile,  always 
willing  to  do  what  was  assigned  to  him;  and  I  believe  he  was  as  gen- 
erally acceptable  in  the  parish  as  he  was  in  my  family  circle,  where  we 
all  became  much  attached  to  him.  As  he  had  not  been  called  to  supply 
any  want  in  the  parish,  but  only  to  do  extra-parochial  work  under  my 
direction,  and  by  his  ministrations  in  the  parish  to  compensate  for  such 
time  and  energy  as  I  might  bestow  upon  outside  work,  I  did  not  feel 
it  right  to  burden  the  parish  with  any  part  of  his  support.  But  having 
in  Mr.  Quin  one  who  could  supply  my  place  during  any  brief  absence, 
I  felt  more  free  to  undertake  such  work  outside  the  parish  as  might 
seem  desirable  and  urgent. 

Our  first  effort  to  reach  the  colored  people  was  by  having  a  ser- 
vice in,  I  think,  the  Police  Court,  on  East  Trade  Street,  near  the  old 
"Carolina  Central  Railroad"  crossing.  This  one  experiment  satisfied 
me  that  we  could  do  nothing  without  a  place-  of  our  own.     Some  time 


St.  Peter's  Church,  Charix>tte,  N.  C.  31 

during  1882  I  was  able  to  purchase  the  lot  on  Mint  Street,  just  beyond 
the  railroad  tracks,  on  which  the  Church  of  St.  Michael  and  All 
Angels  now  stands.  On  that  part  of  the  lot  now  occupied  by  the 
chancel  of  the  church,  was  a  very  shabby  and  dilapidated  frame  dwell- 
ing-house of  three  or  four  rooms.  By  knocking  out  most  of  the  par- 
titions, and  with  some  very  moderate  repairs,  we  secured  space  for  the 
accommodation  of  a  small  congregation,  and  we  made  some  very  sim- 
ple and  rude  arrangements  for  altar,  lectern,  etc.  We  began  our  ser- 
vices in  May.  We  were  never  able  to  find  any  remnants  of  the  old 
colored  members  who  had  been  communicants  in  St.  Peter's  Church. 
We  had  to  work  with  and  upon  wholly  new  material.  The  Rev.  Mr. 
Quin  was  absolutely  faithful,  zealous,  and  diligent,  but  he  really  had 
no  aptitude  whatever  for  work  among  the  negroes.  He  was  a  native 
of  New  York,  born  and  educated  there,  though  of  Irish  parentage.  He 
never,  I  think,  was  able  to  enter  into  any  sympathetic  relations  with 
his  little  negro  congregation.  Fortunately,  however,  shortly  before  this 
time  a  young  colored  man,  James  E.  King,  who  was  an  intelligent  and 
very  faithful  Churchman,  had  removed  with  his  wife  from  Wilmington 
to  Charlotte,  and  opened  a  barber's  shop  in  the  city.  He  became  at 
once  our  chief  assistant  and  support  in  the  work.  At  this  time  I  had 
my  second  Sunday  service  in  the  afternoon,  and  I  usually  took  part  in 
the  evening  service  at  our  colored  mission,  which  we  called  the  "Church 
of  St.  Michael  and  All  Angels."  We  raised  some  money  in  Charlotte, 
a  little  perhaps  from  individuals  in  other  parts  of  the  Diocese.  We 
succeeded  in  paying  for  our  lot,  and  then  I  gave  Mr.  Quin  letters  to  a 
number  of  clergymen  and  friends  of  mine  in  New  York  and  Connecticut, 
and  he  undertook  the  very  ungrateful  task  of  soliciting  money  for  the 
church  which  we  proposed  to  build.  His  efforts  were  so  far  successful 
that  in  1883  we  were  able  to  build  so  much  of  the  proposed  church  as 
was  needed  at  that  stage  of  the  work,  namely,  the  nave  up  to  the 
crossing  of  the  transepts.  This  afforded  ample  space  for  the  work  at 
that  stage.  About  the  time  this  was  accomplished,  towards  the  end  of 
1883,  the  Bishop  sent  the  Rev.  Primus  P.  Alston,  a  young  colored  dea- 
con, just  ordained  the  preceding  spring,  to  take  charge  of  the  work, 
as  the  Rev.  Mr.  Quin  had  been  called  to  Calvary  Church,  Wadesboro. 
The  work  had  now  been  fairly  started,  and  ceased  to  be  part  of  St. 
Peter's  Parish,  though  the  Rev.  Mr.  Alston  carried  on  the  work  under 
my  direction. 

At  this  time,  however,  while  Mr.  Quin  was  with  me,  I  had  been 
using  him  in  another  direction.  Some  time  during  1881  I  had  visited 
Monroe,  having  learned  that  there  were  a  number  of  members  of  the 
Church  there.  According  to  my  best  recollection  I  found  on  my  first 
visit  seven  communicants  living  in  that  town,  though  I  think  there 
must  have  been  two  or  three  others.     They  had  some  years  before  that 


32  St.  Peter's  Church,  Charlotte,  N.  C. 

time  attempted  to  form  a  congregation,  and  had  rented  a  room  over 
a  store,  and  had  it  furnished  with  benches  and  with  one  or  two  old 
articles  of  chancel  furniture,  given  them,  I  believe,  by  St.  Peter's 
Church,  Charlotte.  The  Rev.  Mr.  Boyle  had  held  monthly  services 
there  while  rector  of  Calvary  Church,  Wadesboro ;  and  even  earlier. 
Bishop  Atkinson  had  visited  the  place  and  administered  confirmation 
to  several  persons.  In  1881,  however,  the  little  congregation  had 
become  discouraged ;  no  services  had  been  held  there  for  some  time,  and 
they  felt  that  it  was  useless  to  continue  their  efforts.  I  proposed  to 
them  that  they  should  continue  to  rent  the  room  or  hall  over  the  store, 
and  I  promised,  if  they  would  do  so,  to  give  them  at  least  a  monthly 
service  on  a  weekday,  and  that  I  would  try  to  arrange  for  a  regular 
monthly  Sunday  service,  as  soon  as  possible.  This  proposition  they 
very  gladly  accepted.  The  principal  members  of  the  little  congregation 
were  the  two  brothers,  Samuel  S.  and  Chas.  M.  T.  McAulay,  formerly 
from  Chapel  Hill,  and  their  families,  and  Mr.  Jas.  F.  Payne  and  Mrs. 
Payne,  from  Virginia.  Before  the  arrival  of  the  Rev.  Mr.  Quin,  I  had 
been  giving  this  little  flock  a  monthly  visit  and  service  on  a  weekday 
and  night.  After  he  came  we  kept  up  a  monthly  Sunday  service  dur- 
ing his  stay  in  Charlotte.  When  he  left  for  Wadesboro,  at  the  end  of 
1883,  I  resumed  my  monthly  visits  and  services  on  weekdays.  This 
continued  until  January,  1885,  when  I  was  able  to  turn  the  little  con- 
gregation over  to  the  Rev.  Edwin  A.  Osborne,  as  will  appear  later  on. 
The  services  thus  maintained  for  two  years  or  more  by  the  clergy  of 
St.  Peter's  Chutfch,  had  prevented  the  abandonment  of  this  work,  and 
had  organized  the  beginning  of  a  small  but  promising  mission. 

While  these  matters  of  parochial  enterprise,  outside  the  ordinary 
routine,  claimed  my  attention,  the  internal  work  of  the  parish  was  pro- 
ceeding uneventfully,  but,  on  the  whole,  well.  It  has  been  said  that  the 
country  is  happy  which  has  no  history,  and  the  best  parochial  work 
has  perhaps  the  least  of  the  extraordinary  to  record.  As  I  recall  those 
days,  my  most  distinct  impressions  seem  to  be  of  a  few  aged  parish- 
ioners, too  feeble  to  attend  the  public  worship  of  the  Church,  to  whom 
it  was  my  privilege  to  minister  in  private.  Three  of  them  were  indeed 
notable  women.  Mrs.  William  R.  Myers  was  a  true  mother  in  Israel. 
I  always  felt  that  in  my  visits  and  services  with  her  I  gained  much  more 
than  I  could  bestow.  For  many  years,  helpless  and  suffering,  she  not 
only  manifested  the  sweet  and  gentle  character  of  the  Christian  matron 
and  was  an  example  to  all,  but  she  had  also  a  great  deal  of  patriarchal 
quality:  "She  commanded  her  children  after  her."  It  was  good  to 
see  how  her  prevailing  influence  over  a  large  family  circle  seemed  to 
lose  nothing  of  its  power  for  good,  though  she  was  herself  dependent 
upon  their  care.  One  of  the  very  few  funeral  sermons  I  have  ever 
written  was  prepared  and  preached  when   she  was  laid  to  rest.     And 


St.  Peter's  Church,  Charlotte;,  N.  C.  33 

with  her  I  remember  another  name  inseparably  associated  with  the 
early  history  of  the  parish  as  I  knew  it,  Mrs.  Mary  Jourde  Lucas,  who 
died  February  22,  Ash  Wednesday,  1882,  in  her  eighty-eighth  year. 
Fifty  years  before  this  she  had  been  organist  in  Christ  Church,  Raleigh, 
and  it  was  she  who  harmonized  and  wrote  out  the  music  of  our  State 
song,  "The  Old  North  State,"  from  the  melody  which  Miss  Lou  Taylor, 
a  young  lady  of  Raleigh,  had  caught  from  a  strolling  band  of  Swiss 
bell  ringers,  and  played  by  ear,  and  for  which  Judge  Gaston  had  writ- 
ten the  words,  ever  since  so  inseparably  associated  with  it.  She  and 
her  family,  children  and  grandchildren,  have  for  the  greater  part  of  the 
life  of  this  parish,  been  among  its  most  faithful  and  useful  members. 
And  a  third,  Miss  Sarah  Frew  Davidson,  also  a  cultivated  and  talented 
woman,  of  strong  mind  and  character,  stands  out  in  my  memory  as 
one  intimately  associated  with  the  parish  from  its  very  beginning,  in 
the  days  of  the  Rev.  John  Morgan  and  the  Rev.  Moses  A.  Curtis — 
but  time  and  space  forbid  that  I  further  indulge  these,  to  me,  most 
interesting  memories.  Many  others  would  claim  like  tribute  of  praise 
for  what  they  had  been  to  the  Church,  and  for  what  they  were  to  me, 
did  time  and  space  permit. 

I  must  mention  the  little  four-room  "Home  and  Hospital" — how 
deeply  are  its  memories  engraved  upon  my  mind !  Its  inmates  were 
as  a  rule,  the  "waifs1!  and  strays"  of  life,  drifting  in  from  the  railroads, 
or  from  the  lower,  often  from  the  very  lowest,  strata  of  the  community. 
Here  many  a  helpless  and  hopeless  life  found  a  few  days  or  a  few 
weeks  of  peace  and  rest,  and  unaccustomed  comfort  and  tenderness. 
And  some,  I  believe,  found  the  supreme  help  and  lasting  peace  and 
hope,  before  they  went  hence  and  were  no  more  seen.  Others  beside 
myself,  good  women  and  men  of  St.  Peter's,  know  what  a  blessing 
even  that  little  unfurnished,  unpretentious  house  was  in  those  days ; 
and  what  an  honor  it  was  and  is  to  the  people  and  the  parish,  who  thus 
were  the  pioneers  in  Charlotte  in  providing  for  the  sick,  the  needy,  and 
*he  destitute. 

What  I  had  soon  learned  in  the  parish  concerning  Mr.  Bronson's 
work,  or  rather  of  his  spirit  and  ideas  of  church  work,  had  a  good  deal 
of  influence  in  the  development  of  my  own  plans  and  purposes ;  for 
though  not  immature  in  years  and  in  character,  I  felt  that  I  had  much 
to  learn,  if  I  would  meet  the  demands  of  the  parish.  In  looking  about 
for  some  aggressive  work  in  the  city,  I  learned  of  his  attempt  to  estab- 
lish a  Sunday  School  in  the  brick  schoolhouse  at  the  corner  of  D  and 
Tenth  Streets.  Obtaining  permission  to  use  this  building,  I  secured 
the  co-operation  of  several  members  of  the  congregation,  and  in  Decem- 
ber, 1881,  began  a  Sunday  School  here.  This  was  carried  on  with  some 
success  for  several  years,  and  then  the  building  was  destroyed  by  fire, 


34  St.  Peter's  Church,  Charlotte,  N.  C. 

which  caused  a  temporary  cessation  of  the  work,  but  its  reorganization 
after  a  few  months,  upon  a  larger  scale,  as  will  be  told  in  due  time. 

In  May,  1883,  the  Diocesan  Convention  was  held  in  St.  Peter's 
Church.  It  was  one  of  the  most  notable  Conventions  in  the  history  of 
the  Diocese.  For  many  years  earnest  endeavors  had  been  made  to 
erect  a  new  Diocese  within  the  State  of  North  Carolina.  In  1877,  at 
a  Convention,  also  held  in  this  Church,  a  resolution  for  the  creation 
of  such  a  Diocese  had  been  carried  by  a  good  majority,  but  those 
opposed  to  it  had,  at  an  adjourned  session  of  the  Convention  held  in 
Raleigh,  induced  Bishop  Atkinson  to  withhold  his  consent.  Now,  how- 
ever, in  1883,  all  opposition  proved  unavailing,  and  final  action  was 
taken  for  the  erection  of  the  Diocese  now  known  as  the  Diocese  of 
East  Carolina. 

Another  important  Diocesan  event  marked  this  Convention  of  1883. 
This  was  the  organization  of  the  Diocesan  Branch  of  the  Woman's 
Auxiliary.  On  the  twenty-second  of  March,  1882,  a  meeting  of  the 
women  of  the  parish  was  held  in  the  church,  and  a  parish  branch  of 
the  Auxiliary  was  formed  with  twenty-four  members.  The  leader  in 
this  movement  was  Mrs.  John  Wilkes.  As  the  Diocesan  Convention 
of  1883  drew  on,  Mr.  Wilkes  corresponded  with  the  Bishop,  with  a 
view  of  organizing  a  Diocesan  branch.  The  Bishop  thereupon  author- 
ized Mrs.  Wilkes  to  endeavor  to  effect  such  an  organization.  By 
Mrs.  Wilkes's  efforts  a  number  of  vfomen  from  other  parishes,  some, 
I  believe,  representing  parochial  branches  already  formed,  attended  the 
Diocesan  Convention,  and  after  the  conclusion  of  one  of  the  daily  ses- 
sions of  the  Convention,  these  women  met,  the  Bishop  made  an  address 
to  them  upon  the  Woman's  Auxiliary  and  the  important  work  it  was 
designed  to  do,  I  added  such  information  and  advice  as  I  could,  and 
the  Diocesan  branch  of  the  Woman's  Auxiliary  was  formed,  with  Mrs. 
Wilkes  as  Diocesan  Secretary,  and  head  of  the  organization,  by  the 
Bishop's  appointment.  This  not  only  took  place  in  this  parish,  but  it 
was  distinctly  the  work  of  Mrs.  Wilkes,  a  member  of  St.  Peter's  Church, 
who  for  a  number  of  years  continued  to  be  the  inspiring  and  guiding 
force  in  the  work  of  the  Auxiliary  in  this  Parish,  and  throughout  this 
Diocese. 

Up  to  this  time  there  had  been  no  effort  made  to  extend  the  Church 
into  the  surrounding  country.  St.  Peter's  and  the  colored  congrega- 
tion of  St.  Michael's,  numbering  in  all  about  175  communicants,  repre- 
sented the  whole  work  of  our  communion  in  this  large  and  prosperous 
county.  Col.  Hamilton  C.  Jones  had  spoken  to  me  several  times  of  a 
friend  of  his,  living  in  the  country,  in  Long  Creek  Township,  who  had 
a  Prayer  Book,  given  him  by  the  Rev.  Edwin  A.  Osborne,  and  who 
had  been  much  impressed  by  reading  it,  and  had  frequently  expressed 
a  desire  to  see  and  talk  with  me.     Colonel  Jones  had  offered  to  take 


St.  Peter's  Church,  Charlotte,  N.  C.  35 

him  to  see  me,  but  he  seemed  to  be  a  little  shy  about  coming,  and 
always  put  it  off  until  his  next  visit.  How  long  this  might  have  con- 
tinued to  be  his  attitude,  there  is  no  knowing,  but  happening  to  enter 
Colonel  Jones's  office  one  day,  in  the  early  part  of  the  year  1883,  so 
far  as  I  can  remember  the  date,  I  found  this  man,  Columbus  W.  McCoy, 
talking  with  the  Colonel  about  going  to  see  me,  but  still  putting  it  off. 
I  had  some  conference  with  him,  and  he  told  me  that  he  and  several  of 
his  neighbors,  some  of  them  Presbyterians  and  some  of  no  religious 
profession,  would  be  pleased  to  have  me  come  out  and  preach  in  their 
neighborhood.  Afterwards  I  visited  him  in  his  home,  and  I  suggested 
to  him  that  he  might  come  into  Charlotte  on  Sundays  and  attend  the 
Church  service.  He  did  so  once  or  twice,  each  time  accompanied  by  one 
or  another  of  his  country  friends.  He  still,  however,  insisted  that  there 
were  a  number  of  good  men  near  him,  who,  for  one  reason  or  another, 
were  not  in  real  connection  with  the  congregations  about  them,  and  who 
had  expressed  to  him  a  desire  that  I  should  come  and  preach  in  their 
neighborhood.  I  therefore  made  an  appointment  with  him  for  Sunday 
afternoon,  November  18,  1883.  He  came  in  to  the  11.00  a.  m.  service 
at  St.  Peter's,  took  dinner  with  me,  and  then  drove  me  out  to  "Beech 
Cliff  School  House,"  about  a  mile  beyond  Whitley's  Mill  on  Long  Creek. 
I  found  quite  a  large  congregation  awaiting  me,  mostly  men.  I 
explained  to  them  that  our  usual  method  of  public  worship  was  with  the 
use  of  a  printed  form,  so  that  the  congregation  as  well  as  the  minister 
might  join  audibly  and  unitedly  in  the  worship  of  God;  and  I  said  that 
I  hoped  in  time  to  lead  them  in  that  form  of  worship.  But  I  added, 
that  the  essential  thing  was  not  the  form  but  the  spirit ;  and  I  desired 
them  to  join  with  me  in  the  hymns  and  in  the  Lord's  Prayer,  and  also 
in  the  Apostles'  Creed,  with  their  voices,  if  possible,  but  at  least  in  heart 
and  mind.  A  few  did  join  with  me,  and  one  incident  I  never  forgot, 
and  it  often  recurred  to  my  mind  in  after  days,  and  encouraged  me  in 
moments  of  depression.  Near  me  stood  a  tall  fine  looking  man  of  about 
fifty  years  of  age,  Mr.  Robt.  D.  Whitley,  who  had  never  made  any 
religious  profession,  though  a  man  of  really  noble  character.  He  came  in 
after  days  to  be  my  dear  and  valued  friend,  one  of  the  finest  natures  I 
have  ever  known.  He  was  then  unknown  to  me.  When  I  asked  the 
people  to  kneel  down  and  join  me  in  saying  the  Lord's  Prayer,  he  was 
one  of  those  who  did  so.  He  kneeled  down  upon  his  knees  and  with 
an  earnest  sincerity  deeply  affecting,  repeated  it  with  me,  petition  by 
petition.  I  remained  with  Mr.  McCoy  until  Tuesday,  preaching  again 
Monday  evening.  December  16  I  repeated  my  visit,  preaching  as 
before  on  Sunday  afternoon  and  Monday  evening,  and  visiting  the  peo- 
ple during  Monday.  After  this  visit  on  the  third  Sunday  in  December, 
I  discontinued  my  services,  on  account  of  the  roads  and  the  weather, 
until  the  following  May,  when  monthly  services,  Sunday  afternoon  and 


36  St.  Peter's  Church,  Chareotte,  N.  C. 

Monday  evening,  were  resumed.  August  12,  Tuesday,  assisted  by  the 
Rev.  Edwin  A.  Osborne  and  the  Rev.  Geo.  B.  Whetmore,  D.  D.,  I  be- 
gan a  series  of  services,  morning  and  evening,  concluding  Sunday  after- 
noon, August  17.  During  this  time  we  baptized  sixteen  people,  mostly 
children,  and  at  the  end  fourteen  adults  gave  in  their  names  as  can- 
didates for  Confirmation,  and  eleven  persons,  with  one  exception 
fathers  and  mothers  of  families,  signed  a  petition  to  be  organized  as  a 
congregation  by  the  name  of  St.  Mark's  Chapel,  under  the  Canons  of 
the  Diocese.  The  Bishop  visited  the  mission  October  24  following,  con- 
firmed sixteen  adults,  of  whom  thirteen  were  heads  of  families,  and 
October  25  organized  St.  Mark's  Mission,  in  accordance  with  the  peti- 
tion presented  to  him.  Members  of  St.  Peter's  Church  attended,  both 
at  the  visitation  of  the  Bishop  and  at  the  mission  services  in  August, 
and  were  much  gratified  at  seeing  this  good  work  among  the  good  peo- 
ple of  the  count}-.  Though  Mr.  Columbus  McCoy  had  formerly  been 
a  Presbyterian,  as  well  as  some  others  then  confirmed,  yet  Mr.  Robt. 
D.  Whitley  and  Mr.  Albert  McCoy  had  never  before  made  any  Chris- 
tian profession,  and  Captain  Gluyas,  though  he  had  attached  himself 
to  Hopewell  Church,  had  always  been  a  Churchman  at  heart,  having 
been  born  and  brought  up  as  such  in  Cornwall,  England. 

I  have  thus  given  very  briefly  and  inadequately  the  story  of  how 
St.  Mark's  Church,  Mecklenburg,  came  into  being.  It  was  really  the 
most  interesting  experience  of  all  my  ministry,  and  the  people  of  that 
congregation  soon  became,  and  I  am  thankful  to  say  they  remain,  among 
the  best  of  my  friends  in  all  the  Diocese.  It  would  be  unjust  to  con- 
clude this  account  without  saying  that  the  preaching  of  the  Rev.  Mr. 
Osborne  during  our  services  August  12  to  17,  was  the  greatest  element, 
humanly  speaking,  in  the  interest  and  success  of  those  meetings. 

By  the  organization  of  St.  Mark's  Mission,  Mecklenburg  County, 
a  point  was  reached  at  which  I  had  aimed  for  some  time  past.  I  had 
now  for  two  years  or  more  been  in  charge  of  St.  Paul's,  Monroe,  for 
the  greater  part  of  that  time  without  any  help  in  keeping  up  the  ser- 
vices. Xow,  by  joining  St.  Paul's,  Monroe,  with  St.  Mark's,  Mecklen- 
burg, it  seemed  practicable  to  bring  another  man  into  the  field.  That 
man  I  wished  to  be  the  Rev.  Edwin  A.  Osborne,  and  I  was  fortunately 
able  to  arrange  for  a  stipend  sufficient  to  give  him  a  very  meager  sup- 
port. But  he  was  of  that  rare  kind  who  look  not  for  reward,  but  for 
opportunity,  and  he  came  to  the  call  of  the  work.  In  January,  1885,  I 
turned  over  to  him  these  two  missions,  and  sought  new  ways  of 
extending  the  work  of  the  Parish.  In  him  I  found  a  friend  and  a 
co-laborer  who  has  meant  more  to  me  from  that  day  to  this,  than  I  can 
hope  to  express  in  words.  He  was  frequently  with  me  in  our  services, 
and  priest  and  people  enjoyed  and  profited  by  his  ministrations,  in  the 
church  and  in  the  Parish.     He  was,  in  effect,  a   faithful,  valued,  and 


St.  Peter's  Church,  Charlotte,  N.  C.  37 

unpaid  assistant  in  many  ways  to  me,  always  prompt  to  help  on  the 
work  of  the  Church.  St.  Peter's,  Charlotte,  and  St.  Mark's,  Mecklen- 
burg County,  hardly  seemed  to  us  separate  fields,  so  great  was  our 
common  interest  in  both,  and  so  entire  the  sympathy  and  harmony  with 
which  we  worked  together.  I  do  not  remember  that  one  single  expe- 
rience of  dissension  or  unpleasant  difference  ever  occurred  during  all 
the  years  we  thus  lived  and  worked  together.  This  is  a  happy  memory, 
and  I  think  worth  recording  in  the  history  of  the  parish. 

Mention  has  been  made  of  a  Sunday  School  begun  in  December, 
1881,  in  a  disused  public  school  building  at  the  corner  of  Tenth  and  D 
Streets.  This  was  carried  on  for  some  years,  chiefly  by  the  Misses 
Lucas,  Miss  Bessie  Myers,  Miss  Laura  Orr,  and  Miss  Kate  Shipp.  Some 
interest  was  created,  and  a  number  of  children  attended  from  that  part 
of  Charlotte,  then  commonly  spoken  of  as  Mechanicsville.  After  two 
or  three  years,  I  forget  the  exact  date,  the  schoolhouse,  in  some  way, 
took  fire  and  was  totally  destroyed.  This,  of  course,  put  an  end  to  our 
Sunday  School,  as  we  could  find  no  other  suitable  place  for  it.  But  it 
seemed  to  me  there  was  need  of  some  place  of  religious  worship  and 
instruction  in  that  section  of  the  City.  I,  therefore,  thought  I  would 
purchase  the  lot  where  the  schoolhouse  had  stood,  and  build  a  small 
Chapel.  The  property  belonged  to  the  City  School  Board.  It  con- 
sisted of  six  of  the  eight  lots  which  made  up  the  entire  square,  each  lot 
99  feet  by  198  feet.  The  two  lots  on  Ninth  Street,  one  fronting  99  feet 
on  D  Street,  and  the  other  99  feet  on  C  Street,  were  both  built  upon 
and  occupied,  the  other  six  lots  occupying  the  whole  Tenth  Street  side 
of  the  square  and  297  feet  on  C  and  D  Streets.  The  whole  was  cov- 
ered with  a  growth  of  small  scrub  oaks,  forming  a  very  pretty  grove. 
I  applied  to  the  proper  authorities,  and  asked  their  price  for  the  lot 
at  the  corner  of  Tenth  and  D  Streets.  They  declined  to  sell  a  single 
lot,  but  said  they  would  sell 'the  whole  six  lots  for  $1500.00.  All  the 
property  I  possessed,  except  the  house  in  which  I  lived,  was  a  lot  in 
the  town  of  Tarboro,  worth  I  supposed  about  $500.00.  I  calculated  that 
I  could,  therefore,  make  the  one-third  cash  payment  required;  and  I 
applied  to  Col.  Hamilton  C.  Jones  and  Mr.  Piatt  D.  Walker,  and  asked 
them  if  they  would  agree  to  help  me,  if  necessary,  by  making  the 
deferred  payments  of  $500.00  each,  at  one  and  two  years.  They  agreed 
to  do  this.  I  thereupon  sold  my  lot  in  Tarboro  for  $500.00,  and  paid 
that  amount  to  the  City  Treasurer,  taking  his  receipt,  with  a  statement 
that  it  was  a  payment  on  account  of  those  six  lots,  and  that  I  was  to 
receive  a  deed,  when  the  remaining  $1,000.00  had  been  paid.  To  finish 
this  part  of  my  story  I  may  say  that  I  did  not  have  to  call  upon  Colonel 
Jones  and  Judge  Walker.  A  lost  deed  in  the  chain  of  title  made  it 
impossible  at  the  time  for  the  proper  city  authorities  to  make  me  a 
title,   so  that  I  was  not  called  on   for  the  deferred  payments  for  two 


38  St.  Peter's  Church,  Charlotte,  N.  C. 

or  three  years.  In  the  meantime  I  sold  off  a  lot,  or  two  half  lots,  at 
an  advanced  price,  and  was  able  to  pay  the  balance  myself ;  and  even- 
tually I  disposed  of  the  rest  of  the  property  at  a  profit  of  $1500.00.  So 
while  I  thought  I  was  giving  away  $500.00,  the  only  piece  of  property 
which  I  owned  'except  my  residence,  in  the  end  I  made  a  profit  of 
$1500.00.  I  ma}r  add  that  the  lot  which  I  then  conveyed  to  the  Trustees 
of  the  Diocese  for  the  site  of  St.  Martin's  Chapel,  was  a  few  years  ago, 
with  my  consent,  sold  for  $3000.00,  and  that  $3000.00  paid  for  the  land 
on  which  the  present  St.  Martin's  Church  stands. 

As  soon  as  I  had  made  the  first  payment  and  taken  the  receipt, 
with  memorandum  of  the  contract  of  sale,  I  began  the  building.  It  was, 
a  simple  rectangular  chapel,  twenty  by  forty  feet,  built  of  brick,  with 
an  open  roof,  and  very  pretty  timber  trusses.  The  roof  was  after  a 
design  I  had  had  prepared  for  the  Church  I  built  in  Durham  in  1880-81. 
The  plans  were  drawn  by  the  assistant  professor  of  architecture  in 
Cornell  University,  but  I  found  myself  unable  to  use  them  in  Durham. 
They  were  on  a  larger  scale  than  suited  my  little  St.  Martin's  Chapel, 
but  Mr.  John  Wilkes  had  the  roof  built  by  his  men ;  and  Dick  Grimes, 
his  veteran  boss  carpenter,  scaled  the  plans  down,  and  made  a  beautiful 
job  of  it.  I  understand  that  these  beautiful  timber  roof-trusses  still 
support  the  roof  of  St.  Martin's  Church,  but  are  boxed  in,  so  that  the 
fine  work  does  not  show.  They  had  to  be  pieced  out  so  as  to  be  used 
in  the  present  larger  building,  and  .therefore  it  was  necessary  that  they 
should  be  boxed.  Mr.  Wilkes  had  this  part  of  the  work  done,  and  then 
made  a  gift  of  it  to  my  new  enterprise.  I  called  the  new  Chapel  St. 
Martin's,  because  under  our  Colonial  Church  Laws  Mecklenburg  County 
was  St.  Martin's  Parish.  How  I  raised  the  money  to  build  the  Chapel 
I  do  not  remember.  An  old  college  friend  of  mine  gave  me  one  hun- 
dred dollars,  my  father  gave  me  the  same,  and  others  gave  me  smaller 
sums.  After  finishing  the  walls,  floor,  and  roof,  it  remained  for  some 
time  unfinished  in  other  respects,  with  oiled  paper  for  window-glass. 
It  was  finished  gradually  as  the  money  could  be  raised. 

The  Chapel  being  sufficiently  furnished  to  be  occupied,  was  at  once 
used  for  Sunday  School  and  for  Sunday  night  service.  To  have  some- 
one with  special  responsibility  for  this  work,  St.  Martin's  Guild  was 
organized,  March  16,  1887.  The  first  members  were  Jonn  K.  P. 
Xeatherry,  David  A.  Henning,  Miss  Laura  Orr,  Miss  Bloss  Lucas,  and ' 
Miss  Kate  Shipp,  Miss  Lucas  being  appointed  secretary  of  the  Guild, 
and  Air.  Henning,  treasurer.  August  21  following,  the  Chapel  was 
used  for  the  first  time.  A  Sunday  School  was  organized,  with  Mr. 
Xeatherry  as  superintendent,  and  I  said  Evening  Prayer.  From  this 
time  the  Sunday  School  and  services  were  kept  up  until  after  my 
departure  from  the  Parish.  Under  the  Rev.  Francis  M.  Osborne,  the 
work  developed  into  an  independent  parish.     When   the   removal   was 


St.  Peter's  Church,  Charlotte,  N.  C.  39 

made  to  the  present  site,  and  the  cornerstone  of  the  Church  was  laid, 
it  was  called  at  my  suggestion — which  met  general  approval — The 
Wilkes  Memorial,  in  memory  of  Mr.  John  Wilkes,  who  had  during  his 
long  residence  in  Charlotte  done  so  much  for  the  interests  of  the 
Church  and  for  every  good  work  as  far  as  it  lay  in  his  power. 

While  St.  Martin's  Chapel  was  thus  making  its  beginning,  and  I 
had  other  missionary  attempts  also  on  hand,  demanding  a  good  deal  of 
time  and  thought,  one  of  the  most  considerable  enterprises  which  this 
Diocese  has  ever  attempted,  took  its  rise  here  in  Charlotte,  having  its 
roots  in  the  work  of  St.  Peter's  Parish.  The  property  of  the  old 
"Thompson  Institute"  was  still  held  by  the  Rev.  Mr.  Bronson  ready 
to  be  used  in  some  Church  work.  He  had  offered  it  to  me  upon  my 
becoming  rector  of  the  parish,  as  has  been  mentioned.  He  now  made 
the  like  offer  of  the  property  to  the  Rev.  Mr.  Osborne.  Mr.  Osborne 
resided  in  Charlotte,  and  gave  two  Sundays  each  month  to  St.  Mark's 
and  two  to  Monroe.  These  congregations  being  small  did  not  require 
more  than  a  day  or  two  each  week  for  all  ordinary  pastoral  work,  so 
that  the  greater  part  of  his  time  was  spent  in  Charlotte.  He  had, 
therefore,  leisure  for  some  important  work  here.  He  came  to  me  with 
Mr.  Bronson's  letter,  and  proposed  that  we  should  accept  Mr.  Bron- 
son's  offer,  and  establish  an  Orphanage  to  be  maintained  as  a  Diocesan 
institution.  I  replied  that  I  had  too  much  parochial  and  missionary 
work  on  hand  to  think  of  assuming  additional  responsibilities,  but  I 
assured  him  of  my  hearty  sympathy  with  him,  and  promised  my  cordial 
co-operation  if  he  would  assume  the  leadership  and  responsibility  in 
the  work.  Thereupon  he  wrote  to  Mr.  Bronson  unfolding  his  plans, 
and  Mr.  Bronson  at  once  entered  enthusiastically  upon  the  project  of 
using  the  school  property  for  the  establishment  of  the  "Thompson 
Orphanage  and  Training  Institution."  During  the  Convention  at  Tar- 
boro,  in  May,  1886,  Mr.  Bronson,  with  his  legal  adviser,  the  late  Hugh 
F.  Murray,  Esq.,  of  Wilson,  in  conference  with  Mr.  Osborne  and  my- 
self, went  carefully  over  the  questions  involved,  and  agreed  upon  the 
terms  and  conditions  of  the  Deed,  by  which  Mr.  Bronson  conveyed  the 
property  to  the  Trustees  of  the  Diocese,  to  be  used  in  the  establishment 
of  the  proposed  institution.  This  deed  was  accepted  by  the  Conven- 
tion, and  of  the  six  Managers  called  for  by  the  deed,  three  were  from 
Charlotte — the  Rev.  Mr.  Osborne,  the  Rector  of  St.  Peter's  Parish,  and 
Mr.  Baxter  H.  Moore.  Of  the  subsequent  history  of  this  institution 
I  need  not  speak.  You  know  well  Mr.  Osborne's  faithful  labors  in 
founding  and  carrying  it  on,  and  the  large  and  generous  part  taken  by 
this  parish  in  all  stages  of  that  work.  At  that  time  the  Masonic 
Orphanage  at  Oxford  was  the  only  orphanage  in  North  Carolina.  That 
had  been  founded  by  the  Masonic  Order,  but  was  largely  supported  by 
a  public  grant  of  money  from  the  State.     The  Thompson  Orphanage 


40  St.  Peter's  Church,  Charlotte,  N.  C. 

was  the  first  in  this  State  established  by  a  religious  organization,  and 
supported  wholly  by  voluntary  contributions.  As  in  the  case  of  hos- 
pitals, so  in  the  case  of  orphanages,  the  Church  has  set  the  example 
and  led  the  way  in  this  beautiful  charity,  both  in  the  city  of  Charlotte 
and  in  the  State  of  North  Carolina. 

This  brings  us  back  to  the  subject  of  our  Church  hospitals.  The 
ladies  of  St.  Peter's  had  gradually  been  enlarging  and  improving  St. 
Peter's  Home  and  Hospital,  until  it  became  more  truly  worthy  of  the 
name  of  hospital,  and  in  the  course  of  time  the  other  name  "Home" 
was  omitted.  Perhaps  that  had  never  been  properly  a  part  of  the 
name,  though  it  was  for  some  time  its  popular  designation.  The  board 
of  managers  were  earnest  and  faithful  women,  and  all  did  their  work 
well.  I  think  no  one  will  deny,  however,  to  Mrs.  John  Wilkes  the  credit 
of  being  chiefly  responsible  for  the  great  improvements  made  in  its 
enlargements  and  more  adequate  equipment.  She  was  for  many  years 
treasurer  of  the  Board,  and  she  not  only  managed  the  finances  with 
prudence  and  ability,  but  she  raised  very  considerable  sums  of  money 
for  it  among  her  friends  and  acquaintances  in  New  York.  Having  been 
so  successful  in  her  efforts  for  St.  Peter's  Hospital,  she  began  to  form 
plans  for  a  similar  institution  for  our  numerous  and  needy  negro  pop- 
ulation. For  several  years  she  gathered  funds  for  this  purpose,  and 
early  in  1887  she  unfolded  her  plans  to  me,  and  enlisted  my  co-opera- 
tion in  carrying  them  out. 

On  the  lot  diagonally  opposite  the  Church  of  St.  Michael  and  All 
Angels,  stood  a  chapel  formerly  used  as  a  school  by  members  of  the 
First  Presbyterian  Church,  who  still  owned  the  property.  St.  Michael's 
Church  stood  indebted  to  Mrs.  Wilkes'  Good  Samaritan  Hospital  Fund 
for  $400.00,  borrowed  for  the  purpose  of  finishing  the  work  on  the 
part  of  the  Church  which  had  been  built  in  1883.  The  Rev.  Primus 
P.  Alston  was  much  interested  in  his  parish  school,  carried  on  in  the 
dilapidated  old  building  which  had  been  on  the  Church  property  when 
we  purchased  it;  and  he  was  very  desirous  of  obtaining  the  disused 
Presbyterian  chapel  above  referred  to.  I,  therefore  purchased  the  lot 
and  chapel  from  the  Board  of  Deacons  of  the  First  Presbyterian  Church, 
paying,  I  think,  $700.00  for  the  whole.  Bishop  Lyman  gave  me  $300.00, 
and  I  obtained  $310.00  from  the  sale  of  a  lot  given  me  for  the  purpose 
by  the  Rev.  Jas.  Saul,  of  Philadelphia,  who  had  purchased  it  some 
years  before  as  a  site  for  a  Church  for  our  negro  work.  The  rest  I 
raised,  mostly  from  personal  friends.  The  chapel  was  moved  over  to 
the  lot  behind  St.  Michael's  Church,  and  was  converted  into  a  school- 
house.  The  lot,  by  agreement  with  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Wilkes,  I  conveyed 
to  the  Trustees  of  the  Diocese,  in  trust  for  the  establishment  of  a 
hospital  for  negroes,  to  be  called,  "The  Good  Samaritan  Hospital," 
under  certain   regulations  as   to   control   and  management   specified   in 


St.  Peter's  Church,  Charlotte,  N.  C.  41 

the  deed.  And  under  this  deed  the  Good  Samaritan  Hospital  was  estab- 
lished and  has  been  carried  on.  In  consideration  of  this  conveyance, 
Mrs.  Wilkes  credited  St.  Michael's  Church  with  $400.00  on  the  debt 
due  The  Good  Samaritan  Hospital  Fund.  September  23,  1891,  assisted 
by  the  Rev.  Edwin  A.  Osborne  and  the  Rev.  Primus  P.  Alston,  I  for- 
mally opened  the  Good  Samaritan  Hospital  in  a  short  s'ervice  drawn 
up  for  the  occasion ;  and  thus  was  begun  the  first  work  of  this  kind 
for  our  colored  people  in  North  Carolina,  as  far  as  I  am  informed. 


I  have  now  completed  my  account  of  the  several  Church  enter- 
prises which  in  greater  or  less  measure  took  their  rise  from  the  life  of 
St.  Peter's  Parish,  and  represent,  at  least  in  some  degree,  the  contribu- 
tion of  the  parish  to  the  good  work  of  God  beyond  its  own  parochial 
borders.  And  that  external  influence,  the  developing  of  life  going  out 
into  new  forces  and  institutions,  has  not  ceased.  I  have  told  the  story 
only  so  far  as  I  bore  a  part  in  it.  Since  that  time  this  form  of  vitality, 
this  copious  fecundity,  has  not  diminished,  but  rather  increased.  St. 
Martin's  Chapel  is  now  a  vigorous,  self-supporting  parish ;  another  such, 
The  Church  of  the  Holy  Comforter,  represents  the  Church  in  another 
section  of  the  city ;  St.  Andrew's  Chapel  and  the  Chapel  of  Hope  are 
centers  from  which  other  parishes  may  develop.  Others  in  time  to  come 
will  write  the  story  of  these  new  developments.  I  have  confined  my 
purpose  to  the  thirty  years  from  1863  to  1893,  and  especially  to  the  last 
half  of  that  period.  And  I  venture  to  think  that  it  is  rather  a  remark- 
able example  of  development.  I  do  not  know  anything  just  like  it  in 
our  Diocese.  St.  Martin's  Chapel;  St.  Mark's,  Mecklenburg;  St.  Paul's, 
Monroe ;  St.  Michael's,  Charlotte ;  St.  Peter's  Hospital,  and  the  Good 
Samaritan  Hospital,  and  then  some  good  part  in  the  establishment  and 
maintenance  of  the  Thompson  Orphanage  (for  St.  Peters  directly  and 
indirectly  had  some  part  in  that  good  work),  that  is  a  gratifying  page 
in  our  Diocesan  history.  I  wish  I  had  been  able  to  tell  the  story  better 
and  more  fully.  But  well  or  ill  done,  it  is,  I  think,  worth  the  doing. 
I  have  been  glad  to  point  out,  and  to  follow  for  a  little  way  the  begin- 
nings of  these  various  diverging  streams  of  Church  life,  because  I 
believe  in  time  to  come  it  is  just  these  small  beginnings  which  will  be 
interesting  and  valuable  to  the  student  of  our  history.  I  especially 
regret  that  I  have  been  able  to  dwell  so  little  upon  the  personal  side  of 
my  work  in  Charlotte.  Many  noble  men  and  women  I  have  known  as 
my  friends,  some  in  high  places  of  honor,  others  of  humble  status  and 
obscure  lives,  but  whose  lowly  spirits  were  sweet  to  know,  and  who 
unconsciously  helped  and  blessed  those  who  tried  to  help  them,  more 
than  they  realized. 


42  St.  Peter's  Church,  Charlotte,  N.  C. 

Another  thing  ought  to  be  said.  I  have  dwelt  upon  our  successes, 
i.  e.,  upon  those  undertakings  which  prospered,  and  whose  fruits  are 
now  visible.  But  it  must  not  be  supposed  that  we  always  saw  our 
efforts  thus  blessed.  Were  I  to  tell  you  the  story  of  my  own  failures 
while  rector  of  this  parish,  it  would  perhaps  double  the  length  of  this 
address.  As  1  look  over  the  imperfect  record  of  my  work  in  this  parish 
and  in  this  part  of  the  Diocese,  I  am  amazed  to  see  how  many  things 
I  attempted,  and  how  many  times  I  failed,  and  all  my  pains  and  labor 
seemed  wasted.  Against  each  success  I  think  I  could  put  two  failures. 
Early  in  my  rectorship  I  made  a  visit  to  the  Church  people,  very  few 
in  number,  then  to  be  found  in  the  town  of  Rockingham,  and  I  endeav- 
ored to  establish  regular  services  there.  For  a  year  or  two,  perhaps 
longer,  I  made  a  monthly  visit  to  Mooresville,  for  service  and  for  min- 
istering to  a  few  church  people  in  that  vicinity.  For  a  good  many  years 
I  maintained  regular  monthly  services  on  a  week  night  at  a  schoolhouse 
near  Mount  Mourne,  and  upon  one  occasion  enjoyed  there  a  visitation 
from  the  Bishop,  and  presented  seven  candidates  for  Confirmation,  and 
gathered  a  small  band  of  communicants.  For  two  or  three  years  I  had 
services  and  preached  regularly  at  Davidson  College,  and  had  the  Bishop 
there  to  confirm  a  class  of  ten  persons,  several  of  whom,  four  I  think, 
were  students  in  the  College.  I  took  steps  to  organize  a  congregation 
at  that  place,  and  was  prepared  to  build  a  church,  though  eventually  T 
concluded  not  to  do  so.  This  stirred  up  a  good  deal  of  excitement 
among  some  of  our  Presbyterian  brethren ;  and  a  professor  in  the  col- 
lege, who  by  some  chance  happened  to  be  a  Churchman,  had  to  resign, 
it  being  discovered  that  the  statutes  of  the  College  required  all  mem- 
bers of  the  Faculty  to  subscribe  the  Westminster  Confession  ;  though 
it  seems  that  the  requirement  had  not  been  very  rigidly  enforced.  I 
mention  these  matters,  as  they  are  a  part  of  the  record  of  my  experience 
as  rector  of  the  parish,  and  to  show  that  whether  in  success  or  in  failure, 
St.  Peter's  was  endeavoring  to  let  its  light  shine.  The  Rev.  Mr. 
Osborne  and  I  had  great  ideas  of  Church  extension,  and  from  Charlotte 
up  to  Mooresville  we  worked  and  preached  pretty  diligently,  each 
encouraging  and  helping  the  other.  As  I  ride  over  that  railroad  now,  I 
look  out  and  see  here  and  there  a  country  schoolhouse,  or  a  big  oak, 
or  a  shady  grove,  where  we  gathered  a  little  company  and  endeavored 
to  do  what  we  could  to  lead  them  in  worship,  and  to  preach  the  truth, 
as  this  Church  hath  received  the  same.  And  these  were  most  interest- 
ing and  happy  days.  I  believe  few  clergymen  have  more  thoroughly 
enjoyed  their  work,  in  spite  Qf  all  our  failures  and  disappointments, 
than  we  did  in  those  days.  One  old  countrywoman  out  near  St.  Mark's, 
speaking  of  my  work  in  the  country,  said  to  me,  "You  don't  ramble 
enough."  I  did  not  feel  that  the  criticism  was  just.  I  thought  that  I 
rambled  a  good  deal.    And  I  am  rambling  now,  and  must  stop. 


St.  Peter's  Church,  Charlotte,  N.  C.  43 

Now  I  must  draw  tq  an  end.  My  people  of  St.  Peter's  were  very- 
good  and  indulgent  to  me,  and  so  far  as  I  was  aware  did  not  often 
complain.  The  work  of  the  parish  was,  I  believe,  on  the  whole  not 
greatly  neglected.  I  had  on  principle  adopted  the  plan  of  stimulating 
internal  growth  by  external  effort.  Only  two  summers,  those  of  1882 
and  1883,  did  I  take  a  month's  vacation,  and  then  the  services  were 
fully  kept  up  by  the  Rev.  Mr,  Quin,  without  any  cost  to  the  parish. 
I  did,  however,  make  a  practice  during  most  of  my  time  in  Charlotte, 
to  take  two  or  three,  possibly  four  Sundays  during  the  summer,  besides 
week  days,  for  missionary  work,  mostly  in  Mecklenburg  and  Iredell 
Counties.  During  these  absences  sometimes  Mr.  Osborne  kindly  sup- 
plied my  place,  sometimes  lay  readers  read  the  service.  For  one  year 
the  Rev.  Mr.  Jeffery  was  my  assistant  in  the  parish,  and  we  jointly 
had  the  cure  of  both  St.  Peter's,  Charlotte,  and  St.  Mark's,  Mecklen- 
burg County,  and  supplied  the  services  in  both.  I  do  not  think  the 
parish  greatly  suffered.  In  1893  I  reported  263  communicants,  not  a 
very  great  numerical  increase  over  the  137  of  1881.  But  we  must  be 
credited  with  some  part  of  the  growth  in  the  Church  of  St.  Michael 
and  All  Angels,  Charlotte,  in  St.  Mark's,  Mecklenburg,  and  in  St.  Paul's, 
Monroe.  We  had  also  St.  Martin's  Chapel,  and  St.  Peter's  Hospital, 
and  the  Good  Samaritan  Hospital,  and  much  work  of  the  parish  had 
gone  into  the  Thompson  Orphanage.  The  efforts  of  the  parish  had 
been  directed  outwardly,  not  inwardly.  Reckoning  by  the  communicant 
list,  a  gain  of  92  per  cent,  in  twelve  years  seems  no  great  growth ;  but 
when  all  other  elements  of  life  and  influence  and  usefulness  are  taken 
into  the  account,  and  the  position  of  the  Church  in  the  community,  and 
its  equipment  for  service,  are  considered,  it  will  appear  that  there  had 
been  solid  and  healthful  growth  from  1881  to  1893.  And  it  may  be 
added  that,  with  the  exception  of  Trinity  Church,  Asheville,  no  other 
Church  of  the  Diocese,  of  an  equal  communicant  list  in  1881,  showed 
so  great  an  increase  during  the  same  twelve  years. 

And  how  gratifying  has  been  the  growth  since  that  time!  In  1881 
I  found  only  the  old  St.  Peter's  Church  and  the  little  four-room  "Home 
and  Hospital";  also  the  defunct  "Thompson  Institute."  Now  we  have 
St.  Peter's  Church  and  Parish  House,  St.  Martin's  Church  and  Rectory, 
The  Church  of  the  Holy  Comforter,  the  Church  of  St.  Michael  and 
All  Angels,  with  its  schoolhouse  and  its  rectory,  St.  Andrew's  Chapel, 
and  the  Chapel  of  Hope,  St.  Peter's  Hospital,  the  Good  Samaritan 
Hospital,  and  our  great  Diocesan  institution,  The  Thompson  Orphanage, 
to  say  nothing  of  the  good  work  done  by  St.  Peter's  Parish  beyond  the 
limits  of  our  parochial  boundary.  We  have  six  resident  clergymen, 
including  our  good  Brother  Osborne,  now  retired  from  active  service, 
but  whose  influence  is  still  potent  for  good.  And  I  have  ordained  to 
the  Holy  Ministry  from  Charlotte  since  I  became  Bishop,  five  white 


44  St.  Peter's  Church,  Charlotte,  N.  C. 

candidates  and  five  colored.  White :  The  Revs.  Royal  G.  Shannon- 
house,  William  E.  Callender,  Francis  M.  Osborne,  Cyprian  P.  Willcox, 
and  Henry  C.  Smith.  Colored :  The  Revs.  Jas.  E.  King,  Eugene  Hen- 
derson, Robert  N.  Perry,  John  E.  G.  Small,  and  Arthur  Myron  Cochran. 
And  now  I  have  done.  This  shall  be  the  last  page.  It  has  been 
interesting  to  me  to  write  down  these  memories,  and  very  pleasant  to 
go  over  them  with  you.  Very  few  remain  of  those  who  welcomed  me 
forty  years  ago,  but  there  are  some,  even  of  my  early  vestrymen :  Mr. 
John  Myers,  Dr.  M.  A.  Bland,  Mr.  Jos.  G.  Shannonhouse,  and  Judge 
Piatt  D.  Walker.  And  there  are  more  of  the  younger  people,  among 
these  my  friend,  Mr.  Heriot  Clarkson,  who  then  a  boy  of  thirteen,  was 
the  first  person  whom  I  presented  to  the  Bishop  for  Confirmation,  as 
Rector  of  St.  Peter's  Church,  Charlotte. 


UNIVERSITY  OF  N.C.  AT  CHAPEL  HILL 


00034014628 


This  book  may  be  kept  out  one  month  unless  a  recall 
notice  is  sent  to  you.  It  must  be  brought  to  the  North 
Carolina  Collection  (in  Wilson  Library)  for  renewal. 


Form  No.  A-369 


